New Open-Access Publication: “Sustaining What? From Corporate Sustainability to Agri-Food Transformation Through Commonist Value Theory”

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article in Sustainability (MDPI), now freely available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/18/7/3290#

Corporate sustainability programs in food systems have expanded dramatically. Yet emissions, deforestation, hunger, and land concentration continue to intensify. Why?

Critical scholars have documented this paradox from many angles: greenwashing, corporate power, ecological contradictions, and gendered exploitation. But each captures part of the picture. What has been missing is an integrated account of how these failures are produced by the same underlying structure and why they persist precisely through the improvements that corporate programs deliver.

This paper applies Commonist Value Theory (CVT), a framework developed since 2018 by the author (including the 2024 book Capital Redefined with B.K. Gills), to provide that account. CVT reveals corporate sustainability not as a set of inadequate initiatives but as an active mechanism through which life-supporting relations (farmers’ knowledge, living ecosystems, collaborative networks, and transformative movements) are systematically converted into instruments of accumulation. The critical difference is that CVT traces the architecture of this conversion rather than simply describing its symptoms.

This is one of the first sustained applications of CVT to a specific empirical domain, and it represents an early step in a broader research program extending across energy, housing, and extractive industries. A book developing these arguments more fully is currently in preparation.

The paper also argues that genuine transformation requires a dual movement: commons-based alternatives built from below and political-legislative shifts from above. Neither suffices alone.

We welcome thoughts, critiques, and conversation from anyone working on food systems, sustainability, corporate accountability, or commons-based alternatives. The framework is still developing and benefits from engagement.

Read the full article

About the Publication: This contribution was invited by the editorial team at Sustainability (MDPI), with open-access publication fees waived. The author thanks the editorial team and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, which significantly strengthened the piece.