Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Thereisalsoaneedtoexperimentwithnewperiodizations.Histori-
cal studies of Caribbean and Latin American commodities often span
the ''boom'' years between 1870 and 1930, a periodization largely derived
from theoretical frameworks that matter-of-factly privilege capital, ex-
change, and labor as the engines of history while using the nation-state
as their primary unit of analysis.
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While I do not deny the importance
of economic and state institutions, evidence strongly suggests that both
short- and long-term environmental processes have played an equally or
moreimportantroleinchangingrurallandscapesandlivelihoodsinLatin
America.However,becauseenvironmentalprocessesseldommoveinsync
with economic cycles or political movements, historians would bewise to
reconsider accepted chronologies and timescales.
The motivations behind researching and writing this topic have not
been limited to my scholarly interests.Understanding the export banana's
past is important for plotting its future role in tropical agroecosystems
throughout theworld.The relationship between people, plants, and path-
ogens continues to evolve: Black Sigatoka has spread to most of the major
banana- and plantain-growing areas in the world. Although Panama dis-
ease is not presently a factor in Caribbean and Latin American export
banana production centers, strains of fusariacapable of infecting Caven-
dish varieties are spreading in other parts of the world. The historical
record strongly suggests that the pathogen will likely reach the Ameri-
cas in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, many scholarly and popular
scientific sources fail to account for the historical (human) dimensions
of interactions between bananas and fungal pathogens. Popular media
sources have recently reported that bananas are on the brink of ''extinc-
tion''duetodiseasesimplicitlyconstructedasforcesofnature.
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Such stories are problematic because they fail to situate crop plant
pathogens in a historical context and unwittingly set the stage for future
''development vs. conservation'' dilemmas that pit wealthy, often urban-
basedconservationistsagainsttheinterestsofruralworkingpeople.How-
ever, by viewing crop plant disease epidemics as the outcomes of produc-
tion/consumption dynamics, we can envision a less gloomy, albeit more
complex,futurebasedonthepossibilitiesofrefashioningbothagriculture
and commodity markets to value the agro-biodiversity and human labor
upon which agricultural production has depended.
Entering the twenty-first century, there are some reasons for opti-
mism. In many industrial and postindustrial societies, new social move-
ments have called attention to the relationship between food production,
