In this essay I argue that agriculture and food have all along invisibly underpinned relations of property and power in the world system. Now they have finally emerged as key points of conflict in international organizations. A perspective on power and wealth different from the usual one, which emphasizes agriculture as an industry, may indicate alternative paths out of the present impasse of global rule-making. With this goal, I explore in turn (and in brief) the past, present, and possible futures of agriculture, and the social forces at play in determining the conditions under which any possible future will unfold. At the heart of any solution to today's global agricultural impasse the dilemma, I conclude, is an appreciation of'livelihoods' and'habitats', that is the living foundations of all human societies: healthy human bodies and relationships and earthly cycles of air, water, soil, and organisms.