The main problem of production in capitalism is the transformation of a necessity into a commodity. Every human being needs food, clothing and shelter to protect them and to be healthy. Food, clothes, houses and medicine are products that every human being requires to meet the basic needs of life. They are essential because of their use value.
But in capitalism, the bosses sell them to us for their exchange value, i.e. for the profits that they get from these products. If there is no profit for them, the products don't get to our homes, even when they're piled up in warehouses, or thrown away. In other words, if we don't have the money, we can't buy them. This is the main contradiction in the system of capitalist production.
The ideas that we reflect here are the result of collective discussions with comrades of ICWP and Red Flag readers from several countries of a communist analysis of food production, which was presented to comrades and friends at a recent meeting in Mexico.

Capitalism: Food to Sell
In capitalism, the goal of food production is not to have a healthy lifestyle, but to generate profits. This brings great suffering to the working class. Currently, 50% of the working class in the world (three and a half billion people) are malnourished: hungry, undernourished or obese.
They suffer from poisoning, allergies or diseases such as cancer, and one third of the population survives on $ 2 a day. To make matters worse, of all the food produced by workers in the bosses' industries, 60% is thrown in the garbage because it is not sold. This amount is enough to feed a population higher than the current world population, the estimated population by mid-century (11 billion people).
Big corporations own 80% of the land on which food is grown. They have cornered the water for irrigation and have the technology, inputs, knowledge and laws to dominate the entire food system.
But to maintain profits and compete with other bosses, they have to invest in technology, improved varieties, transgenics, agrochemicals and they must pay farmworkers less.
Racism, sexism and nationalism are fundamental for them to exploit us. Women and children are superexploited in the harvest of berries in Mexico. Or undocumented immigrants in Brazil—mostly indigenous farmworkers from Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay. The bosses in the U.S., in China and in all countries have their own undocumented workers.

Communism: Food to Eat
Use value will be the main thing in communism. We will use the most benign environments to produce food. In each climate (tropical, temperate or desert) suitable crops will be produced, and distributed to regions where they cannot be cultivated.
The same person over a period of time will produce food, at other times will produce clothing or build houses, and if needed can take care of sick people. We will do all physical and mental work. Both will be equally appreciated, and we will never value one over the other. We will work freely, without money, without bosses, without borders, without racism, and without sexism. We will be one family.
Whether or not we understand the contradiction in capitalism leads us to two paths. Not understanding it keeps us tied to the illusion that capitalism can be reformed, to create a "more humane capitalism." Environmentalists, advocates of permaculture and agro-ecologists like Vandana Shiva, for example, passionately criticize and describe capitalism to mass audiences, but do not understand or explain the main contradiction, so they never speak of imperialism and war as inevitable to the nature of capitalism. Understanding this contradiction leads to communist revolution, because we know that capitalism has no solution. Only communism can meet all the needs of the working class. Join ICWP!