Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical WorldIn the late 1800s American entrepreneurs became participants in the 400-year history of European economic and ecological hegemony in the tropics. Beginning as buyers in the tropical ports of the Atlantic and Pacific, they evolved into land speculators, controlling and managing the areas where tropical crops were grown for carefully fostered consumer markets at home. As corporate agro-industry emerged, the speculators took direct control of the ecological destinies of many tropical lands. Supported by the U.S. government's diplomatic and military protection, they migrated and built private empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Yankee investors and plantation managers mobilized engineers, agronomists, and loggers to undertake what they called the "Conquest of the Tropics," claiming to bring civilization to benighted peoples and cultivation to unproductive nature. In competitive cooperation with local landed and political elites, they not only cleared natural forests but also displaced multicrop tribal and peasant lands with monocrop export plantations rooted in private property regimes. This book is a rich history of the transformation of the tropics in modern times, pointing ultimately to the declining biodiversity that has resulted from the domestication of widely varied natural systems. Richard P. Tucker graphically illustrates his study with six major crops, each a virtual empire in itself—sugar, bananas, coffee, rubber, beef, and timber. He concludes that as long as corporate-dominated free trade is ascendant, paying little heed to its long-term ecological consequences, the health of the tropical world is gravely endangered. |
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acreage acres agriculture American areas banana became beef began Brazil Brazilian British Cambridge capital Caribbean cattle Central America century coast coastal coffee Colombia colonial commercial corporate Costa Rica countries country’s Criollo crops Cuba Cuban cultivation culture Development dominated early ecological economy ecosystems El Salvador environmental estates European expanded export Filipino Firestone foreign Forestry frontier Fruit Company global Guatemala hardwood Hawaii Hawaiian hills History Honduras Honolulu imported industry investment islands King Ranch labor land Latin America Liberia logging lowlands lumber mahogany major Manila Mexico million modern natural Nicaragua North northern operations Pacific Panama pasture peasants percent Philippines pine plant plantations planters political population port profits rainforest ranching region rubber Salvador São Paulo shipped social soil South Southeast Asia Spanish species strategy sugar cane sugar production timber tons trade transformation trees tropical forest United Fruit United Fruit Company University Press workers World Yankee York