Foreword by Thomas Piketty Earth Capital: Long Live Eco-History! Introduction When Does the Future Begin? Thinking About Time, Appropriating the Future: A Global Perspective Part I. Green Growth and Forced Labour, 12th-19th Centuries 1: Indispensable Labour, Forced Labour Too Many People? Where's the Capital? A Law for the Masters Global Economic Growth 2: Energy Resources in Pre-Industrial Economies Wood and Coal Wind and Seawater Rivers Like No Others Animal and Human Power 3: Crops and Material Culture Wheat: The Wrong Right Answer Hybridisation or Perhaps Not: Pasta Many Rice Varieties, Not Just in Asia Afro-American Maize "Noble" Cane: Our Sweet Tooth, a Rod for Their Backs 4: A Dangerous Mix: Environment, Institutions and Inequality Little Ice Age and the Collapse of Agrarian Empires The Price is Right! Regulating Markets Meat: A Scarce Food Part I Conclusion: Why Europe? The Power of Violence and Constraint Part II. The Productivist Regime and the Great Acceleration, 1870-1970 5: The Age of Capital The Architecture of Competition What the Modernisation of Agriculture Really Means Creative Destruction? Chemicals in Food Production Smog in the Global North, Flogging in the South: A New Energy Equilibrium 6: Seeds, Plants, and Genetics Hybrid Maize: Miraculous Yields and Economic Dependence Rice and Floods Wheat: Standardization at the Expense of Nutrition 7: Transmissible Diseases and Food: Meat Meat for All, but at What Cost? Swine Trichinosis: Protectionism or Health Crisis? An Epidemic without Borders: Bovine Tuberculosis Conclusion: Epizootic to Zoonotic, the Pendulum Swings 8: Capital, Neo-Colonialism and Famine Capital and Markets: Allegro Ma Non Troppo Nouveaux Riches and Permanent Outsiders Colonial Famines Part II Conclusion Part III. From the 1970s to 2050: High Globalisation, Collapse and the World After 9: Neoliberalism and the Euphoria of Speculation Das Kapital Moves South Energy Sources in the Age of Globalisation Ever-Increasing Yields: The End of Illusions 10: Hunting for Seed Varieties vs. Genetic Selection From Hybrids to GMOs Seeds and Intellectual Property: Breaking the Link Breeding Wipes Out Everything in Its Path Why Can't We Live Without Meat? The Boomerang Effect: Mad Cow Disease, Avian Flu and Covid Babette's Feast 11: Towards the World After An Ideal World in the Past? Green Taxation vs. Inequalities Should We Get Out of Capitalism? Put an End to Speculation Seeds and Intellectual Property: Breaking the Link Restoring the Centrality of Labour Conclusion: Just Institutions vs. Just Societies.