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While the going is good, it is easy to
envisage the global capitalist model
retaining the upper hand.
Lifting All Boats
Many small countries, particularly in
Central America and the Caribbean
but also in subsistence agriculturedominant
areas in countries as different
as Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador,
Mexico, Paraguay and Peru, continue
to suffer in two ways. First, their
chances of selling surplus production
has been undercut by cheaper imports.
Second, because the greatest portion
of their income is devoted to securing
food, the price spikes hurt them
disproportionately compared to the
middle and upper classes. There is no
easy solution. A silver bullet might not
even exist, but we have to keep sharpening
our critical skills to think about
alternatives.
In the Western Hemisphere, multi-
lateral forums that deal with responses
to agricultural price shocks, food
security, food versus fuels, “land grabs”
and displacement, and climate change
and water levels should give priority
to the small Central American and
Caribbean republics. They should also
emphasize the poorest rural sectors in
countries where communities continue
to be displaced by the self-reinforcing
success of economies of scale that are
underpinned by the financing, transport,
storage and distribution clout of
vertically integrated corporations.
“Small is beautiful” may be close to
a contradiction in terms when referring
to capitalist agriculture, but any
perspective that takes the welfare of
all individual human beings seriously
needs to consider the possibility of successful
rural development. Such a perspective
would mean that supertankers
Argentina and Brazil should mind
paddleboats, such as the small Central
American and Caribbean republics
—or, for that matter, the poorest rural
areas in South Asian and Sub-Saharan
countries—as much as they mind other
supertankers, such as Canada, the EU
and the United States.
In turn, these agricultural giants
should also mind and help poor, vulnerable
countries—not through handouts
but through rule changes eliminating
the subsidies and tariffs that
help the supertankers keep growing at
the expense of the small boats.
International relations specialists
will continue to say that such suggestions
are naive to the point of silliness,
but nothing is written in stone when it
comes to the potential for significant
international change. It happens all the
time. n
Francisco E. González is the Riordan
Roett Associate Professor of Latin
American Studies.
2011–2012 31