Looking at the material conditions, at who may benefit and how they may do so, should always be among the first steps in any intellectual investigation.

…but… …sometimes, there isn’t a clear cut material explanation. People are things of matter yet it does not fully define how we behave. Only informs it. Gives it a floor and a ceiling. A context. Our actions can still be compelled by the intangible, by the ideological. Sometimes people act against their own interests without realizing it.

Also, the more small-to-medium regional farms fail, the more land can be snapped up on the cheap by big ag companies