Part II
1. For a more thorough discussion of the implications of cash-crop agriculture, readers are referred to my own book and to Joseph Collins and Frances Moore- Lappe', Food First, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1977. Back
2.This is why the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development's (UNRISD) recently designed research program "Food Systems and Society "comes as a welcome change. By the summer of 1978 work had begun in Africa, India and China; the entire study will span several years and cover a wide variety of geographical areas and academic disciplines. See Food Systems and Society: Problems of food security in the modem world, UNRISD, Project proposal, 16th Special Session of the Board, Geneva, UNRISD 78/C. 14.Back
3. My doctoral dissertation for the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Paris; Strategies d'Intervention des Pays Industrialises dans les Systemes Alimentaires des Pays Peripheriques, deals extensively with these trends. I do not recommend it to anyone lacking fluent French but would be willing to make it available on a "need to know" basis at photocpy cost. The need should be pressing as there are 500 pages and photocopying is expensive in France. Inquiries may be directed to me through TNI. Back
4.Those who want a detailed and lively description of the US food system should read Jim Hightower, Eat Your Heart Out, Crown, New York, 1975. Back
5.A careful and fascinating account of the role of farm machinery and other changes will be found in Peter Dorner, "Transformation of US Agriculture: The Past Forty Years," Agricultural Economics Staff Paper Series no. 126, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, June 1977. Back
6.John E. Lee, Jr.; "Agricultural Finance, Situation and Issues," Paper presented at the 1978 Food and Agricultural Outlook Conference, USDA, Washington, D.C., November 1977 (mimeo).
Also, "A Bumper Crop of Loans to Farmers," Business Week, February 28, 1977.
7. David Lins, "Credit and Finance Outlook," Paper presented at same conference cf. note 6. Back
8."How the Family Farm can Harvest Millions," Business Week, July 4, 1977.
9. Hearings before the subcommittee on family farms, rural development and special studies, Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives, February 18, 24, 25, 1977, pp. 45-48. Back
10.Statement of Paula S. Schaedlich, Agriculture and food marketing project, Iowa public interest research group, in Hearings, idem. p. 333.
11. Hightower, op. cit. p. 144. Back
12. Idem, chapter 8.
13."Hybrid Wheat: Big New Outlet for Fertiliser?" Chemical Week, August 28, 1974. Back
14. John E. Lee, Jr.; op. cit., Table 2, p. 12. Back
15. Susan Sechler and Susan de Marco, "Earl Butz's Legacy to Farmers," The Elements, March 1977. Back
16. Peter Dorner, op. cit. p. 9ff. Dorner is well aware that "small farmer" will mean different things in different contexts. In Wisconsin, he sets the cut-off, no-go line for dairy farms purchased after 1950 at about 80 acres; for corn/soybeans, 160 acres, for wheat, 320 acres.
17. Linda Grant Martin, "How Beatrice Foods Sneaked up on $5 Billion," Fortune, April 1976. Back
18. Tables on Research and Development Spending, 1977, Business Week, July 3, 1977, p. 65ff.
19. A good example is Textured Vegetable Protein which comes in flakes, grains, minces, globs or what-have-you and is a very hot item on the food processing scene. It is made from soya, so does not qualify as ersatz on grounds of origin, but the extrusion technology involved relates it more to an organic chemical. See also Hightower, op. cit. p. 108f. Back
20. Daniel Zwerdling, "The Food Monopolies," The Progressive, January 1975. Back
21. Walter Keichel, III; "The Soggy Case Against the Cereal Industry," Fortune, April 10, 1978.
22. USDA-Economic Research Service: "Contract production and vertical integration in farming, 1960 and 1970," Report no. 479, April 1972, pp. 4-5 (reproduced in a working document of the United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations.) Back
23. Hightower, op. cit., p. 165.
24. For a brilliant exposition of the reasons why capitalist production of all kinds is necessarily wasteful, one can do no better than to read or re-read Baran and Sweezy's classic Monopoly Capital, Monthly Review Press, New York 1966. They do not discuss agribusiness, but the concepts apply. Back
25. Full explanation plus 85 "energy budgets" in Gerald Leach, Energy and Food Production, IPC Science and Technology Press, Guildford (Surrey, UK) 1976.
26. Alternative Futures for US Agriculture: A Progress Report; prepared by the USDA Office of Planning and Evaluation for the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, US Senate, Washington, D.C. GPO, September 1975. Back
27. Idem, Tables 11, 29, 44 and 24. Back
28. Idem, p. 33.
29. Howard Kunreuther, "Why the Poor May Pay More for Food: Theoretical and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Business, University of Chicago, July 1973. Back
30. Proceedings of the Sub-committee on National Security Policy and Scientific Development of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, December 5, 1969, p. 127. Back
31. Idem, p. 36. Pierre Spitz has analyzed Foundations' roles in detail in De la Recherche en Sciences Sociales du Développement aux Etats-Unis, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Paris 1971 (mimeo); I have borrowed from him here.
32. Arthur T. Mosher, President of the Agricultural Development Council, testifying in Proceedings, p. 73. Back
33. Garrison Wilkes, "The World's Crop Plant Germ Plasm: An Endangered Resource," The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 1977, p. 15-16. Back
34. Idem, p. 16.
35."A Rich Harvest for Seed Growers," Business Week, January 13, 1975. Back
36. J.I. Hendrie, Head, Life Sciences, Shell International Chemical Co., Ltd. "Seed Production and Plant Breeders' Rights." Paper prepared for the Consultation with Agro-Industrial Leaders in Preparation for the World Food Conference, Toronto, September 1974.
37. M. Kreisberg, "Miracle Seeds and Market Economies," Columbia Journal of World Business, March-April 1969. Back
38. "India: What Can We Do to Help?" JD Journal (John Deere), Moline; Illinois, Vol. 3 no. 4 (1974). Back
39. K.N. Raj, "La mecanisation de l'agriculture en Inde et a Sri Lanka," Revue Internationale de Travail (International Labor Office), Geneva, October 1972. Raj also quotes from S.R. Bose, "The Green Revolution and Agricultural Employment under Conditions of Rapid Population Growth." Retranslated into English by SG.
40. K.C. Abercrombie, "Agricultural Employment in Latin America," International Labor Organization Review, July 1972.
41. Both quotes from Solon Barraclough and Jacobo Schatan; "Technological Change and Agricultural Development," Land economics (University of Wisconsin), May 1973, p. 188. Back
42. Andrew Pearse, "Technology and Peasant Production: Reflections on a Global Study," Development and Change, (8), 1977, p. 140. Back
43. Michael Lipton, speech as summarized in "Summary Record," FAO Bankers Programme General Committee Meeting, October 21-22, 1976, (mimeo), p 5. Back
44. FAO Press Releases 76/31 and 75/76.
45.Andrew Pearse, The Social and Economic Implications of Large-Scale Introduction of New Varieties of Food Grain: An Overview Report, UNR1SD 75/C. 11, GE75-5363, Part III, p. 5. Back
46.Lester Brown with Erik P. Eckholm, "Buying time with the Green Revolution," Du Pont Context (no. 4, 1974) E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
47. X. World Bank Memorandum on India, May 5, 1975. The memorandum relies partially for its figures on successive Indian land censuses of 1961 and 1971. I shall leave the author his anonymity, but ignore the "Not for Quotation" stricture. Back
48. The Asian Development Bank report is quoted in Patrice de Beer, "Les Echecs d'une Politique anti-Subversive en Asie," Le Monde Diplomatique, January 1978.
49. Andrew Pearse op. cit. note 42. Back
50. OPIC Computer Print-out: "Agricultural Contracts of Insurance
as of December 31, 1977" and OPIC Annual Reports from 1973 to 1977.
51. Robert J. Ledogar, Hungry for Profits, IDOC, New York 1976, Sp. pp. 94-98. Back
52. Paul Cornelsen, President of Ralston Purina International, quoted in Harvard Business School, Ralston Purina International, Case 4-371-501-AI 310, p. 8-10. Back
53. LAAD Annual Report 1974 ("Letter to the Shareholders"). Back
54. LAAD Annual Reports 1974 and 1975, "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements."
55. John Liston and Lynwood Smith, "Fishing and the Fishing Industry: an Account with Comments on Overseas Technology Transfers," Ocean Development and International Law: the Journal of Marine Affairs, Fall 1974. Back
56. World Food Program Press Release 78/25/WFP/29; FAO Press Releases 78/43/CO/8 and 78/49/CO/ll.
57. cf. "Ralston Purina Profits by Going to the Dogs," Commercial and Financial Chronicle, June 17, 1974. Back
58. M. Merlier, "Le Congo de la Colonisation Beige a l'lndependance," Maspero, Paris 1963. Cited in M.K.K. Kabala Kabunda, "Multinational Corporations and the Installation of Externally Oriented Economic Structures in Contemporary Africa" in Carl Widstrand, ed. Multinational Firms in Africa, Scandinavian Institute for African Studies, Uppsala 1975, p. 305-06. Back
59. Lord Cole in the Financial Times of May 28, 1966, cited in Counter Information Service, Unilever's World, Anti-Report no. II, p. 93. Back
60. Xavier Browaeys, "Le Commerce International des Oleagineux et des Matleres Grasses," L'Information Geographique, November-December 1973, p. 235.
61. Peter Nehemkis, "Expropriation has a Silver Lining," California Management Review, Fall 1974.
62. For a detailed account of Nestle's Third World activities, see Susan George, "Nestle Alimentana S.A.: The Limits to Public Relations," Economic and Political Weekly, (Bombay), XIII, September 16, 1978, pp. 1591-1602. Back
63. OPIC Annual Report 1976, p. 38-39. There is no way I have found to tell what capital sources or MNC the name "Tea Importers Inc." conceals. The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank affiliate that engages in private investment, lists this same operation under the name "Societe Rwandaise du The, SARL" and merely says that in addition to OPIC, "equity capital was provided by the private US sponsor and local investors." 1FC Annual Report 1976, p. 19. Just as a matter of general interest, OPIC also insures a bank set up in Rwanda by Morgan Guaranty.
64. Bernard Roux, "Expansion du Capitalisme et Developpement du Sous- Developpement: L'Integration de l'Amerique Centrale dans le Marche Mondial de la Viande Bovine." Revue du Tiers Monde, IEDES-PUF, Paris, April-June 1975. N.B. Roux's figures extend only to the end of 1972; the situation has grown much worse since then. Back
65.Ray A. Goldberg, Agribusiness Management for Developing Countries—Latin America, Ballinger, Cambridge (Mass.), 1974.
66.Idem, Table 4-6, p. 160-61. Back
67.Idem, p. 178.
68.Idem, p. 202.
69.Idem, p. 158-59, p. 195. Back
70.Idem, p. 272, p. 289.
71.Ernst Feder, Strawberry Imperialism: An Enquiry into the Mechanisms of Dependency in Mexican Agriculture, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, 1976. Back
72. Details of Sinaloa growing operations in NACLA, "Harvest of Anger," Latin America and Empire Report, Vol X, no. 6, July-August 1976. Back
73. Ray A. Goldberg, "Agribusiness for Developing Countries," Harvard Business Review, September-October 1966. Back
74.e.g. Thomas Horst, At Home Abroad, Ballinger, Cambridge (Mass.) 1974; Henry J. Frundt, American Agribusiness and US Foreign Policy, Doctoral thesis, Rutgers University, 1975. Back
75. Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) 1976 Year-End Report to USDA Executive Steering Group and Participating USDA Agencies, January 31, 1977 (mimeo), p. 1. Back
76.Idem, p. 2-3.
77.Idem ,my emphasis.
78."US Plans Satellite Survey to Predict Wheat Harvests," International Herald Tribune, January 12, 1977. Back
79. James Ridgeway, "Spy in the Sky," The Elements, May 1975.
80. Quotes are from an undated brochure of Remote Sensing Engineering, Ltd. Back
81. J. Egg, F. Lerin, M. Venin; Analyse Descriptive de la Famine des Annees 1931 au Niger, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) Paris, 1975, p. 28, p. 52, their emphasis. Back
82. Laurence Wilhelm, "Le Role et la Dynamique de l'Etat a travers les Crises de Subsistence: Le Cas de la Haute Volta," Memoire de These, Institut des Etudes du Developpement, Geneva, October 1976; cited in Pierre Spitz, "Silent Violence: Famine and Inequality," in Violence and lis Causes, UNESCO, Division of Human Rights and Peace, forthcoming 1979.
* I am gratified to say that partly because of my own work and also thanks to the efforts of Professor Erich Jacoby of Stockholm, the Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Edouard Saouma, decided in 1978 to throw the Industry Cooperative Programme (a group of over a hundred multinational agribusinesses) out of his Organization. ICP's business executive members immediately asked Secretary Waldheim for "a more central position in the UN system"; he suggested they join the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with his blessings, but UNDP's governing Council refused them entry. A last-minute (October 1978) bulletin from Geneva informs me that a few ICP officers were then still in a UN annex, keeping their doors closed and their profiles low while searching for an agency to take the Programme in. It now seems unlikely they will find one. Mr. Saouma should be commended and Chapter 9 of my book (except as regards the Bankers Programme) should be viewed as of historical interest only.
83. FAO Press Release 77/116/C/19.
84. Draft notes of the Deliberations of Panel C on World Food Security, Consultation with Agro-Industrial Leaders in Preparation for the World Food Conference, Toronto, September 1974. Back
85. E. Reuss, "Economic and Marketing Aspects of Post Harvest Systems in Small Farmer Economies" (a two-part article), FAO Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Economics and Statistics, Vol. 25, nos. 9 and 10 (September and October 1976). Back
86. Idem, Part I, p. 4. Back
87. Idem, p. 5.
88. Report of the United Nations University Expert Group on World Hunger, September 22-26, 1975 (mimeo) p. 11.
89. International Labour Organization, Second Tri-Partite Meeting for the Food Processing and Drinks Industry, Technical Report no. 3: "Appropriate Technology for Employment Generation in the Food Processing and Drinks Industries of Developing Countries," Chapter 3, ILO, Geneva 1977. Back
90. Photocopy of Great Plains Wheat Association; Trip Report: African Wheat Market Survey (May 30-July 6, 1977) typescript. Back
91."Let 'em Eat Ricetein," Forbes, May 1, 1976 and "Senegal to get New Protein Food Developed in US," International Herald Tribune, April 10-11, 1976.
92."The Greying of the Soft Drink Industry," Business Week, May 23, 1977. Back
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