Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

One effect of globalization on the environments of developing nations is the loss of native flora and fauna due to the conversion of wild lands to farmland and pasture for industrial agriculture. El Salvador, for instance, was covered in dense wood forests that stretched for miles in the early twentieth century. This changed, however, when commercial coffee producers moved in and pushed small subsistence farmers off their lands, forcing them to clear the forests to farm. The forests of El Salvador don’t exist any longer (Faber 1993b:85). El Salvador’s coffee processing plants release boron, chloride, and arsenic into the environment there. Toxic chemicals, according to a USAID report, build up “in soil, livestock, human and ecological food chain and urban waste disposal” (Faber 1993a:53).

Much of Central America has suffered from similar ecological degradation. The Pacific Lowlands suffered, because the tenant speculators who were using the land were doing so on short-term credit. Soil cover, drainage systems, and wind barriers were ignored for the most part, because the long-term health of the land was unimportant to them (Faber 1993b:91). In the Dominican Republic, tomato production on contract farms has caused a host of problems. The processing firms that contract Dominican farmers to grow their tomatoes decided in the 1980s to begin calendar-based pesticide application rather than need-based. Fertilizer use and mechanical cultivation were also increased. The overuse of pesticides fueled an infestation of white flies in the Azua Valley. They simply used more force with their pesticides until the land was no longer usable then moved on to another location, where the white flies followed them. This created a cycle of infestation and overuse of agro-chemicals (Raynolds 2000:447-448).

Any such chemicals that aren’t absorbed run off into the ground, causing water contamination. Pesticides and other agrochemicals can cause problems directly for laborers as well. Thousands of Costa Rican banana workers are rendered infertile by nematicides, and thousands more are at risk of the same fate. In the 1970s, at least 73,230 pesticide poisonings occurred there. These poisonings aren’t just limited to Costa Rica; Honduras and Nicaragua led the world in pesticide illness and death per capita in the 1960s and 70s, and Nicaraguans and Guatemalans have more DDT in their systems than anyone else in the world (Faber 1993a:54). Although much of these effects could be limited by protective clothing, employers often do not provide their laborers with these necessities. Only 10 to 15 percent of Nicaraguan field workers have them (Faber 1993a:54).

Globalization affects the economies of developing nations profoundly. Laborers in these countries are hardly ever paid a living wage, making the purchase of those necessities, not to mention food and shelter, difficult or impossible. Contract farming, wherein smallholders produce for private corporations, is used often in the developing world, and it certainly doesn’t help the position of the small growers (Raynolds 2000:442). The private corporations usually “loan” the necessary capital to the growers, which is then subtracted from the payment they receive for the end product when it is sold back to the corporations. In the Dominican Republic, the prices for tomatoes are set by the government and the corporations, often at harvest time. This means that sometimes, a grower will get nothing for the tomatoes he grows. He may even end up in debt (Raynolds 2000:445). A very similar situation is occurring in Malawi, where the tobacco industry uses contract farmers and causes problems for the economy and people of that country. The economic dependency on tobacco is not bringing wealth to the people of Malawi, but it is bringing wealth to the tobacco industry (Otanez, et. al 2002).

In the West Indies, a centuries-old system of international trade was ruined by European colonial powers when they established the plantocracy (Andreatta 1998:415). The growing demand for chile has created a culture of chileros, or chile entrepreneurs, who form groups called equipos in order to supply chiles to the world market (Alvarez 1994:255). There are seven primary chile markets in Tijuana alone (Alvarez 1994:257). In Central America in the 1960s, The Alliance for Progress and United Fruit, “the direct beneficiary of the [C.I.A.-backed] Guatemala coup,” gave the region’s rich and powerful even more wealth and power over the peasantry, causing severe impoverishment. Many of these peasants were subsequently evicted, and the only work they could find was short-term cotton picking (Faber 1993a:48).

The globalization of the agriculture system and the previously noted ecological and economic changes have led to cultural changes in the third world. The rise of contract farming in the Dominican Republic has led to a rise in nontraditional farming, which is supplanting traditional farming. Thousands of peasant homes have gone into contracts with private corporations, which changes the entire cultural dynamic of families and population centers (Raynolds 2000:443). In Malawi, where a majority of the citizens are farmers, many of them farm tobacco. Sixty percent of Malawians live below the poverty line (Otanez, et. al 2002). Gender roles are changing due to globalization, as well. In some places, such as Central America, division of labor by gender has changed. Whereas the women used to produce on the minifundio, or small farm, along with raising children, they now also might have to work as seasonal wage laborers (Faber 1993a:74).

The changes in their countries are driving many citizens to other places, creating an “implosion of the third world into the first.” The number of Hispanics in the United States grew by 70 percent in the 1980s, and ethnic peoples are 50 percent of Los Angeles’ population (Alvarez 1994:256). In the West Indies and elsewhere, those who leave become circular immigrants; they leave their homes to make money then return successful and wealthy. In the West Indies, traditional export crops such as arrowroot, coconut, cotton, indigo, spices, sugar, and tobacco were grown for centuries. However, due to lowering prices on the European market in the nineteenth century, the sugar economy began to falter. This enabled smallholders to begin reducing their dependency on the plantocracy and grow other crops (Andreatta 1998:416).

Though globalization isn’t inherently bad, it’s proven to be a problem for third world agriculture and the ecologies, economies, and cultures of third world nations. It has caused deforestation in Central America. It has forced small farmers off of their lands and into debt. It has put power in the hands of large corporations and corrupt governments and kept it from the citizenry. When looking at the future of the global economy, we must keep these things in mind.

References Cited

Alvarez, Robert
1994 Changing Ideology in a Transnational Market: Chile and Chileros in Mexico and the US. Human Organization, Vol. 53. No. 3. Pp. 255-262.

Andreatta, Susan
1998 Transformation of the Agro-Food Sector: Lessons From The Caribbean. Human Organization. Vol. 57. No. 4. Pp. 414-428.

Faber, Daniel
1993a Chapter 2: Poverty, Injustice, and the Ecological Crisis from Environment Under Fire: Imperialism and the Ecological Crisis in Central America. Pp 45-81.
Monthly Review Press. New York.
1993b Chapter 3: Poisoning For Profit from Environment Under Fire: Imperialism and the Ecological Crisis in Central America. Pp. 83-115. Monthly Review Press. New York.

Otanez, Martin & Christopher Walker, dirs.
2002 Up In Smoke. 127 min. Bullfrog Films. Oley, PA.

Raynolds, Laura
2000 Negotiating Contract Farming in the Dominican Republic. Human Organization. Vol. 59. No. 4. Pp. 441-451.