Understanding Nature’s Value: Review of Alyssa Battistoni’s Critique of Capitalism and the Politics of Nature

Understanding Nature’s Value

Alyssa Battistoni’s work on capitalism and nature examines why the economic system persistently fails to value crucial aspects of the natural world, even as it expands commodification in other domains. Her analysis links ecological crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss to the ways capitalism differentiates between what receives economic value and what remains treated as costless or invisible.

Book and Core Argument

Battistoni’s recent book, published by Princeton University Press under the title “Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature,” focuses on how capitalism relies on “free gifts of nature” that are not fully accounted for in market relations. Rather than asking only why nature should not be commodified, she reframes the issue as an economic puzzle: why some elements of nature have not been commodified, even when capitalism tends to turn many things into commodities.

The “Free Gifts of Nature” Concept

Battistoni revives and reinterprets the classical economic idea of “free gifts of nature,” meaning benefits and resources obtained from the environment without direct payment. She argues that capitalism fundamentally treats these natural contributions as available “for the taking,” which masks the real ecological and social costs embedded in production.

Domains of Analysis

Battistoni structures her inquiry around several domains where the notion of the free gift becomes visible.

Natural agents in industry, such as energy sources and ecological processes, that support production without being fully priced.
Pollution and environmental degradation, which are offloaded onto ecosystems as if they were limitless sinks.
Reproductive labor in the household, where care and maintenance work sustain the workforce yet are often unpaid or undervalued.
Natural capital in the biosphere, including ecosystems and climate systems, which are essential for life but only partially captured in economic metrics.

Relationship to Marx and Political Economy

Building on Karl Marx’s critique of political economy, Battistoni shows how capitalist value forms depend on appropriating nature without adequately compensating for it. This approach not only clarifies how capitalism contributes to ecological breakdown but also sheds light on the core dynamics of accumulation and exploitation in the system itself.

Rethinking Freedom and Responsibility

Battistoni also intervenes in debates about freedom, arguing for a “materialist existentialism” suited to an ecologically troubled era. She contends that capitalism narrows people’s capacity to take responsibility for their relationships with the non-human world, and she explores how forms of freedom could be reimagined to recognize and value nature’s contributions.

Intellectual Context and Interlocutors

In situating her argument, Battistoni engages with twentieth-century theorists of economics and politics, including figures such as Friedrich Hayek and Ronald Coase, as well as feminist and political ecology scholars. Through these dialogues, she criticizes both liberal political economy and some strands of Marxist ecology for retaining assumptions that treat nature as an external, costless backdrop to economic life.

“Free gifts of nature” in Battistoni’s account are not merely metaphors but concrete ways in which capitalist societies rely on unpriced work done by ecosystems and by human bodies.

Implications for Ecological Politics

Battistoni’s analysis suggests that responding to climate change and biodiversity loss requires more than adding prices or markets for carbon and other environmental goods. Instead, ecological politics must confront the deeper structures that define what counts as value in capitalism and who or what is expected to provide unpaid support to the system.

Toward New Ways of Valuing Nature

Her work points toward alternative frameworks that recognize interdependence between human societies and the natural world beyond purely monetary measures. By challenging the assumption that nature is merely a collection of inputs and sinks, she opens space for political projects that foreground care, responsibility, and shared flourishing across species.

Battistoni’s study offers a sharp and timely reflection on how capitalism systematically underprices nature while relying on its “free gifts,” urging a rethinking of value, responsibility, and freedom in an age of ecological crisis.

Morning Star — 2025-11-29