Philip McMichael and Laura T. Raynolds

Introduction

p 316 - must look at the state of the third world within the context of its development as a raw goods supplier for the first world

p 316 - the move to industrialization has marginalized the peasants due to the increase in output needed to finance industrialization, and hence the move towards larger scale farming

p 317 - farming is subordinated to industry which leads to bad plans to get international agribuisnesses to move in, further hurting the economy

p 317 - since the end of the first world war, only a small portion of the people in first world nations worked on farms -- major agribuisnesses moved into the third world

The Colonial Era (Summary)

p 318 - third world came to be what the first world needed from it

p 319 - the movement towards technology driven farming has caused farming all over to be highly dependent on the manufacturers of that technology, but has also driven it to be the best choice for raising foreign capital

The Fordist Agro-Food System

Metropolitan agriculture in global perspective

p 319 - post war years: drive towards politically administered major resources to stimulate capital accumulation, control of the economy by off cycle public spending, and encouragment of full employment through the Fordist practice of raising prices to stimulate purchasing. also stable international exchange system based on the dollar

p 319 - meat became the principle American income generating crop, most others were to feed the cattle, meat became a symbol of wealth

p 320 - in the 1900s america established food import bans and farm subsidies, exported these to europe with the Marshall plan -> huge food surpluses -> effects third world economies

p 320 - the demand for raw goods -- rubber, fibres, dyes -- decreased as the industrialized countries began to synthesize them, so they shifted to wanting tropical foodstuffs. by the 1970s there was a switch to more processed foods - ‘by products’ of developed world agriculture

p 320 - ‘by products’ were the over production of wheat and milk -- encouraged by farm subsidies and better technology -- accounted for 80% of US food aid by 1965 and around 1/4 of world wheat trade

p 321 - led to third world dependency -- governments got good deals on it and would sell it to their peoples to raise money

p 321 - this gave the US political leverage, particularly with its agribuisnesses -- effect was to halt any development of local food self sufficiency

The reorganization of Third World agro-food systems and class relations

p 321 - massive cheap US food imports helped feed people, but undermined the local production capabilities -- bad

p 321 - third world food imports rose dramatically, but their local agriculture wet down -- they were becomming dependent on the imports -- also governments playing with the national prices

p 322 - Stimulated industry by both supporting local purchasing power and by supplementing wages which in effect subsidized labourv

p 322 - influx very cheap of crops changed local demand to want items from the US.-- also imported grains dealt with the protein industry

p 322 - dependency on imports for food as it is cheaper to import than to grow it

p 323 - countries used their money to fund larger industrial projects rather than investing in agriculture -- in heavily populated countries this allowed them to get at the markets -- other countries offered them tax-breaks

p 323- growth in the processed foods sector led to an increase in production for that sector, which meant more for the rich and less for the poor -- undermined the peasant farmers and encouraged a new bunch of agrarian capitalists

p 323 - the green revolution has led to a dramatic increase in production in countries which can afford it -- increased grain production

p 324 - the green revolution has only effected wheat and rice production in a few countries -- bypassed much of africa which has led to dramatic wheat imports going mostly to the new urban middle class

p 324 - the green revolution encouraged large mechanized farmers, which mean that it hurt the poor peasant farmers as they lacked access to the capital needed to invest in such equipment

p 324 - the move to commercial agriculture has led to the destruction of the viability of the subsistence peasant as they can no longer compete and has forced them to move off their land and into the poverty of the cities

Crisis in Fordiom and implications for third World agriculture

Metropolitan crisis and restructuring of the world (food) economy

p 325 - the oil crisis in the 1970s led to the collapse of the stable world markets and exchange rates and led to companies moving production to the third world to take advantage of the cheaper labour, governments unable to control the international currency exchange -- for all industries

p 325 - to help the balance of payments crisis in the late 1970s, the US adopted an export strategy which encouraged the farmers to export -- wheat production up 60% and grain prices up 400% in 1980

soviet block accounts for 60% of this increase

p 326 - could no longer raise wages to encourage consumption -- had to cut prices by moving to cheaper labour -- had to start looking internationally rather than locally

grain production in the developed countries reached record level (EC and USA) with the continuation of farm subsidies-- the third world was now accounting for 57% of all wheat imports -- way up from 10% in the 1950s

the shift to artificial substitutes for tropical food products made the US not need most third world exports -- this had been encouraged by protectionism

p 327 - sugar substitutes took over in America as protection was lifted, in Europe protection mad the EC the world’s largest sugar producer - this hurt third world sugar producers

Developed World tropical product substitution & growing food dependency of the third world - encouraged by decentralization of production and de-regulation of the 1980s

Trends: some shift to specialty goods (ethnic/health foods) in the developed countries, increase in non-traditional exports from third world countries

Results: the developed countries lead in low-value, high quantity products, while the third world is concentrating on high-value, low volume products

The developed countries have much greater access to the third world markets -- they also hove much better barriers against the third world imports

Third World crisis and constraints on agro-industrial development

p 328 - post war model of development has been shaken by the oil crisis and subsequent global economic restructuring -> extreme debt

p 329 - while the prices of their inputs were rising, the value of their exports fell as the industrialized countries dumped onto the market -- the third world countries failed to establish effective control of the global market

States could not afford to spend on infrastructure development as they had to put so much of their money into paying for thier debt -- could not afford to subsidize their new high tech farming industry -- sever austerity measures

p 330 - this contraction has led to an increase in the most profitable goods, which has hurt the local markets as most foodstuffs must still be imported

they tried removing government control, but then you get firms which will rape the land for short term projects

‘opening’ of third world markets hasn’t generated much interest in Africa -- and lets the farmers compete directly with subsidized first world farmers

p 331 - NGOs have espoused export-driven growth rather than internal development -> non-traditional products

go to where the labour and land and regulations are cheapest - contract farming

these products are in very volatile markets and the countries have to offer great subsidies to get them in -- not clear that it is at all a benefit for them

Conclusion

p 332 - agricultural systems have undergone dramatic reorganizations -- they are special in that they are both important as economic sectors and as basic subsistence sectors

p 332 - the colonies were subordinated to the colonists economic and material needs

p 332 - the Fordist system reinforced the idea of mass consumption, encouraged mass exports of products and the exporting of cheap first world foodstuffs which undermined local self sufficiency

Substitution of tropical imports and subsidies in first world nations have hurt the third world nations a lot -- rising input costs too