Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America
Author: Robert G Williams
Before social unrest shook the region in the 1970s, Central America experienced more than a decade of rapid export growth by adding cotton and beef to the traditional coffee and bananas. Williams shows how the rapid growth contributed to the present social and political crisis, examines the causes of the export boom and who benefited from it, and shows the impact of the boom on land use, the ecology, and the conditions of life in the rural areas.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments | xiii | |
List of Abbreviations | xv | |
Introduction | 3 | |
Part 1 | Cotton | |
Chapter 1 | The Cotton Boom and Its Primary Causes | 13 |
Demand for Cotton by Central American Manufacturing | 14 | |
World Demand for Cotton after World War II | 16 | |
The Insecticide Revolution | 17 | |
Chemical Fertilizers | 18 | |
Tractors | 18 | |
Modern Technology and Cotton Yields | 19 | |
Government Road-building Programs | 20 | |
Cotton and Credit | 24 | |
Government Promotion of Cotton Finance | 25 | |
Summary | 27 | |
Chapter 2 | The Cotton Boom and Its Primary Beneficiaries | 28 |
The Cotton Growers | 31 | |
The Cotton Landlords | 35 | |
Cotton Gins | 37 | |
The Cotton-Export Houses | 38 | |
The Suppliers of the Cotton Boom | 40 | |
Banks and the Cotton Boom | 42 | |
Vegetable-Oil Factories and Textile Mills | 43 | |
Cotton and the Cotton Elite | 44 | |
Ecological Consequences of Cotton | 48 | |
Summary | 51 | |
Chapter 3 | Cotton and the Common Man | 52 |
The Cotton Boom and the Opening of Fresh Cropland | 52 | |
Cornfields to Cotton | 54 | |
Cotton and Peasant Access to Land | 55 | |
Cotton and the Creation of a Wage-Labor Force | 60 | |
The Irreversibility of Cotton | 66 | |
Cotton to Cattle | 67 | |
Cotton to Sugar | 67 | |
Cotton to Basic Grains | 69 | |
Cotton and the Social Fabric | 70 | |
Summary | 73 | |
Part 2 | Cattle | |
Chapter 4 | The Beef-Export Boom and Its Primary Causes | 77 |
Practices before the Export Boom | 78 | |
The Demand for Beef in the U.S. Market | 84 | |
The Vital Supply Link: The Modern Packing Plant | 87 | |
Refrigerator Transport | 90 | |
Roads and the Beef Trade | 91 | |
State Promotion of the Beef Business | 92 | |
Road Finance | 92 | |
Direct Promotional Finance to the Beef Sector | 93 | |
The Beef-Export Boom and Technology on the Ranch | 95 | |
Summary | 98 | |
Chapter 5 | The Beneficiaries of Beef | 99 |
The Source of the Beef Bonanza | 99 | |
The Packing Plants' Share of the Beef Bonanza | 102 | |
The Impact of the Boom on Slaughter Sheds, Vendors, and Consumers | 105 | |
Private Investment in Cattle Raising | 105 | |
The Collapse of the Small Holder | 108 | |
Profits from the Sale of Modern Inputs | 109 | |
Vertical Integration in the Beef-Export Business | 110 | |
Summary | 110 | |
Chapter 6 | Cattle and the Campesino | 113 |
Forest to Pasture | 113 | |
Forest to Corn to Pasture | 114 | |
Ecological Consequences of Forest-to-Pasture Transformation | 115 | |
Impact of Forest-to-Pasture Transformation on Peasants | 117 | |
The Cattle Boom and Rights to Land Use | 118 | |
The Cattle Boom and Rural Conflict: The Pacific Coastal Plain of Honduras and Costa Rica | 124 | |
Olancho, Honduras: The Cattle Boom, the Peasant Movement, and Rancher Violence | 126 | |
The Cattle Boom, Rural Guerrillas, and Counterinsurgency in Nicaragua (1967-1972) | 129 | |
The First Phase of the Guatemalan Cattle Boom (1960s) | 134 | |
The Second Phase of the Guatemalan Cattle Boom (1970s) | 139 | |
The Cattle Boom and the Repression of Cooperatives in Quiche and Huehuetenango (mid-1970s) | 142 | |
The Cattle Boom, the Massacre at Panzos, and the Guatemalan Civil War | 147 | |
Summary | 151 | |
Part 3 | The Crisis | |
Chapter 7 | Cotton, Cattle, and the Crisis | 155 |
Cotton and the Buildup to Crisis | 155 | |
Cattle and the Buildup to Crisis | 158 | |
U.S. Policy and the Buildup to Crisis | 160 | |
World-System Shocks: Impact on Elites | 161 | |
World-System Shocks: Impact on the Poor | 163 | |
Summary | 165 | |
Chapter 8 | Governments and the Crisis | 166 |
The Unfolding of the Crisis in Nicaragua | 166 | |
The Unfolding of the Crisis in El Salvador | 170 | |
The Unfolding of the Crisis in Guatemala | 174 | |
Reform and Repression in Honduras: Responses to Shocks | 179 | |
Government Responses to the Crisis in Costa Rica | 183 | |
Summary | 188 | |
Chapter 9 | Challenge for a New U.S. Policy | 190 |
Statistical Appendix | 197 | |
Notes | 209 | |
Bibliography | 239 | |
Index | 249 |
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The AEC Technology Survival Guide: Managing Today's Information Practice
Author: Kristine K K Fallon
Using information technology to sharpen your firm's competitive edge
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