Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 22:07:14 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Hungry for Profit (was Re: M-I: African Agriculture)


Louis Proyect wrote:
>James, let me try and make this as simple as I can, so that even somebody
>as defiantly ignorant as yourself can absorb it. Export agriculture in
>Latin America, Asia and Africa already uses the most up-to-date technology.
>Wealthy farmers all have access to fertilizer, tractors, pesticides and
>computers. They all hire college-educated agronomists to run their farms.
>They also already own all the best land and have no trouble getting credit.
>The reason for this is that they are capitalist enterprises and banks love
>to make loans to profitable institutions. More mechanization and chemical
>treatments for the soil means more profits.

Louis is correct. Though James might be unaware of it, the Green Revolution
has been *already* tried in the Third World, mainly to skew the Third World
agriculture toward export monoculture. I suggest that James watch an
excellent documentary titled _Hungry for Profit_. Or read Samir Amin (who
makes an appearance in the film as a talking head).

The Green Revolution not only provided an ideological weapon--a technical
solution to the problem of social relations--to resist land reforms (e.g.
expropriation of huge latifundia) but also helped to concentrate the
landownership in even fewer hands.

James should listen to Louis, unless he wants to be remembered as a belated
apologist for the "Alliance for Progress."

Yoshie




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