Re: imperialism and poverty

Dear Paul:

I meant to respond to your original message but got too busy (ah... the
life of a journal editor!).  There is a book that I found very helpful a
few years ago -- but of which few folks on the list probably are aware.
It's by a guy who was trained in biological ecology (and is currently a
life sciences prof at UCSB) named William W. Murdoch.  It's called THE
POVERTY OF NATIONS: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HUNGER AND POPULATION (1980)
Johns Hopkins University Press.  Of course, the book is now a bit dated
and the author was blissfully unaware of most of the global political
eocnomy/world-system theoretical ideas that are familiar to many of us.
But it's still worth a look...

dave smith
sociology, uc-irvine


(PS To respond to your interest in more up-to-date material, there's a
guy named David Myhre who does some interesting work on agriculture in
Mexico.  You also might want to look at something by Harriet Freidmann on
the political economy of food production.) 

On Tue, 18 Jul 2000, Paul Gomberg wrote:

> Thanks to all who wrote with bibliographical suggestions.  The most 
> useful thing I have found so far is Andre Gunder Frank's chapter in 
> Crisis in the Third World about agribusiness--he points out how growing 
> productivity in agriculture is often associatiated with increased 
> poverty. The only problem is that this was published in 1980 and his 
> sources were from the 70s.  Does anyone know a more up to date 
> discussiion of how the growing influence of capitalist agriculture in the 
> world is excerbating rural poverty? My sense of it is that in countries 
> such as Mexico more land is coming under the control of major food 
> conglomerates, undermining the position of traditional farmers, forceing 
> them into the rural or urban or immigrating proletariat and extending 
> their poverty. But recent case studies and analysis that make this 
> argument in detail would be helpful, and I do not have them yet. So I am 
> still looking for help.
> 
> Paul
>