Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America

by Robert G. Williams

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469615882
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	273
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Robert G. Williams, Voehringer Professor of Economics at Guilford College, is author of Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America.

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The strength of this work lies in its ability to show the variability of social, labor, and land tenure patterns with coffee, not just between but within each of the Central American nations. . . . A highly effective presentation of what we currently know about coffee, society, and politics in Central America.—Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College

Editorial Reviews

A highly effective presentation of what we currently know about coffee, society, and politics in Central America.

Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College

"A highly effective presentation of what we currently know about coffee, society, and politics in Central America.

Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College"

From the Publisher