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[Part of the process/By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

Half a kilo of rice, when lavishly packaged and labeled "organic," can carry a price tag of 199 yuan (US$31).

That's a lot, but not unthinkable in an age when a handbag or a bottle of liquor can be priced at thousands of yuan, and still grabbed as "bargains."

After all, rice can sustain life and producing it involves months of backbreaking toil.

What really makes news is that the surplus value of this exorbitantly priced item does not in any degree trickle down to the peasants who raised the crop.

The rice was first purchased from the peasants at less than two yuan per jin (500 grams), and then branded as a luxury gift priced at 199 yuan.

This happened in Wuchang, Heilongjiang Province, which in recent years has been advertised for the quality of the rice it produces.

Xinhua News Agency attributes this pricing phenomenon to the "weak bargaining power" of peasants when confronting the capital dominating rice-processing channels.

In this process, the government departments that are meant to safeguard peasants' interests are colluding with rice-processors to maximize the profit of the rice, at peasants' expense.

To remedy the situation, a Xinhua commentator calls on peasants to enhance their bargaining power by forming truly effective economic cooperatives, and stresses the government's role in providing peasants timely guidance, service, and support.

What this commentator fails to ask is whether this practice of turning rice into a luxury item is consistent with traditional Chinese values, which center on honesty, or any rational pricing mechanism?

According to Marx, the exchange value of an item incorporates the amount of work that went into creating it.

As it is calculated, the true cost for processing this gift rice stands at around 0.2 yuan for every jin, meaning the luxury rice package is sold at a profit totally disproportionate to the value added.

Thus the exorbitant profit benefits only the capitalists.

Today this way of making money can be openly touted as a case of successful marketing or branding, fit for enthusiastic citation at an MBA session.

There are a host of reasons why this kind of money-making should be discouraged.

A simple, but nowadays unthinkable approach, would be to ban sales of the outrageously overpackaged item.

The vanity and status value it's supposed to radiate is neither good for our morals, nor our environment.

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