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Unequal caloric exchange

Abstract:

The unequal caloric exchange is a conceptual construction of a phenomenon of the world economy but seen from a different position linked to the economic, social and environmental reality. In Latin America and the Caribbean, high nutritional quality calorie food products are exported at low prices, while low nutritional calorie foods are imported at increasingly higher prices. Traditional economics has shown that there are unequal trade exchanges measured in prices between rich countries and impoverished countries. At the same time, ecological economics has contributed with the category of ecologically unequal exchange; It is observed that the increasing extractive levels measured in tons decapitalize nature and cause environmental damage. By expressing trade relationships in units of calories (not in prices or tons), a contribution is made to the understanding of trade inequality. The unequal relationship measured in calories conditions the supply or productive dependency matrix; the impoverished countries of the South continue to sell food with no added value, and with an impact on domestic consumption.