'Sowing the Seeds of Their Own Destruction': Southern Planters, State Policy and the Market, 1933–1975

In this article, I examine the relationship between class, state and market. I analyse the process of class transformation, tracing the demise of the Southern planters. Scholars analysing the retrenchment of US agricultural policy in the 1970s frequently overlook the profound influence that this class segment had on the agricultural policy of price supports and production controls. Yet, this policy of supply management contributed to the transformation of the plantation–tenant system in the South. This transformation created an opportunity for the emergence of the civil rights movement, which further weakened the Southern planters and allowed for changes in agricultural policy. The retrenchment of agricultural policy between 1950 and 1975, then, must be understood in light of this process of class transformation.     

The Development of Agrarian Capitalism in Post‐Soviet Russia

A core set of criteria have been met, so that it is accurate to speak of an agrarian capitalist system in Russia. The development of agrarian capitalism carries with it increased stratification, which is analysed along five dimensions: earned income, land expansion, use of credit, income from food sales and income from household enterprise. The paper demonstrates increasing differentiation between households, between professional cohorts and within professional cohorts. The data showing stratification within professions suggest that intra‐cohort stratification is driving most of the inter‐cohort stratification. The Russian model of agrarian capitalism and its processes of stratification have yielded a bifurcated countryside in which a thin stratum of ‘super winners’ has emerged. Economic processes have developed beyond simple stratification and have created the basis from which a rudimentary class structure appears to be forming.     

Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Colonial British North America: The Place of the American Revolution in the Origins of US Capitalism

Social and economic historians have debated whether the rapid growth of agricultural and industrial commodity production in the United States was a continuation of or a radical break with the economic and social patterns of British colonial North America. At issue is whether the social and economic preconditions for capitalist industrialization existed before, or emerged only after the American Revolution and the establishment of an independent US state. The two major interpretive models – the 'staples/commercialization' and 'frontier/demographic' models – provide insights into the process of economic development in colonial North America. However, their inability to root their analyses in specificities of different forms of social labour leave them inadequate. This essay attempts to root the patterns of economic growth and development in the dynamics and transformation and preservation during the American Revolution of different social property relations (independent household production, petty-commodity production, plantation slavery) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.     

Away-from-Home and At-Home Beef Consumption in the United States

Logit models are developed to measure the effect of socioeconomic and demographic factors on the probability of consuming beef in the United States. The analyses are done in both the away from home and at home markets using the 1987-88 National Food Consumption Survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Factors that significantly affect the likelihood of eating beef include: race, seasonality, urbanization, ethnicity, household size, sex, age, and income.     

From feudal colonization to agrarian capitalism in Mallorca: Peasant endurance under the rise and fall of large estates (1229–1900)

The colonization of Mallorca gave rise to a late‐feudal agrarian society that evolved towards capitalism based on large estates owned by noblemen who hired large numbers of wage labourers from among smallholders living in agro‐towns, the dispossessed remnants of a formerly wealthier peasantry. These well‐off peasants originated from when the colonization frontier was open in the 13th and 14th centuries, but had been defeated when three peasant–plebeian revolts were crushed. Afterwards, Mallorca followed a latifundist transition towards agrarian capitalism similar to southern Italy or Spain, in sharp contrast with the middle‐peasant paths seen in Catalonia or Valencia. The land rent rose, while agricultural wages fell from 1659 to 1800. Peasant families could not survive, and had to supplement wages with the products of their own plots. This set a socio‐agroecological limit to growth in this agrarian class structure. The agrarian crisis at the end of the 19th century bankrupted the Mallorcan nobility. Bankers bought much of the land and sold it on as small allotments. This expanded the intensive cropping formerly limited to agro‐town belts, giving rise to a new “peasantization”. Despite their subordination, Mallorcan peasants had survived and created complex agroecological landscapes endowed with a rich biocultural heritage.     

'Changing Before Our Very Eyes': Agrarian Questions and the Politics of Land in Capitalism Today

This paper endorses the criticisms of neo-classical populism and its advocacy of redistributive land reform provided by other contributions to this special issue of the Journal, to which it adds several further points. If GKI propose a version of an agrarian question of 'small' or 'family' farming, and its resolution through a familiar (Chayanovian) path of development, much of the critique rests, in one way or another, on the 'classic' agrarian question in capitalist transition, in effect the agrarian question of capital in which the agrarian question of labour was once subsumed. Here the question is posed whether, in the conditions of contemporary 'globalization' and its tendency to the 'fragmentation' of labour, there might be a new agrarian question of labour, now detached from that of capital, and which generates a new politics of struggles over land (and its distribution). Even to conceive of this question is beyond the analytical and political field of vision of neo-classical populism. Some of the dimensions of an agrarian question of labour are illustrated in a brief consideration of recent, and highly contradictory, events in Zimbabwe: a unique case of comprehensive, regime-sanctioned, confiscatory land redistribution in the world today.     

Patterns of accumulation and social differentiation through a slow‐paced agrarian market transition in post‐Soviet Uzbekistan

This article presents an analysis of contemporary Uzbek agrarian change. First, using mixed methods and triangulating secondary and primary data from Samarkand, it untangles emerging relations of production and exchange during the slow processes of market transition. It shows that different types of public investment, price regulation, subsidies, procurement mechanisms, and the pace of marketization to which crops are subject shaped a slow growth of rural social differentiation and private accumulation. Traditionally, cotton farms have been in a privileged position because they have access to more land and subsidized inputs of production. However, due to recent fast‐track liberalization policies and state‐led investment, farms producing high value crops—fruit and vegetables—are at the forefront of a new pattern of private accumulation. Second, the article reflects on how the gradual approach to market transition has so far squeezed private accumulation, enabling the centralization of surplus extraction from cotton and wheat. This state‐led accumulation strategy is slowly fading, leaving space for market‐oriented reforms that will entail new but uncertain distributional and developmental outcomes within and outside agriculture.     

Cacao capitalism in coastal Ecuador: Production processes and accumulation in non‐transitionary agrarian capitalism during the long 19th century

Histories of agrarian capitalism have often been constrained by the implications of Robert Brenner's work on the subject. This essay, employing archival and secondary research on Ecuador's long 19th century experiences with cacao capitalism, argues that production processes and localized forms of accumulation, rather than class structure and legal relations, should be included in our definition of the concept. By focusing on how fixed capital in cacao trees and the production of the yearly cacao commodity responded to global demand and local material conditions, I propose amplifying the concept of agrarian capitalism, as well as a rethinking of coastal Ecuador's history of capitalist development. I highlight how both absolute and relative forms of surplus value generation coexisted in coastal Ecuador's cacao haciendas, while demonstrating how financial instruments used for extending the cacao frontier undermined the prospects for long‐term growth.     

工业人工林投资经济效果评价应注意的若干问题

本文主要论述在工业人工林科学的投资经济效果评价中应注意的若干问题,指出工业人工林的评价应以财务评价为主;评价方法和评价指标也应选用动态评价法和动态指标;为了更全面的评价分析,还必须对在不同经营措施条件下的经济效果进行分析;贴现率的选取应慎重;为了更准确的评价分析,还要考虑风险问题;最后还必须考虑地力衰退问题。所有这些都是全面、科学的工业人工林经济效果评价应遵循的。     

潮白河沙地杨树丰产林经济效益分析

分析了潮白河沙地杨树丰产林10年轮伐期的生长情况和经济效益。结果表明:从经济角度考虑,该丰产林的最佳轮伐期是13～15年;在10年轮伐期内,林地总利润为172.7万元,资金盈利率为7.2%,投资回收期为13.8年。综上所述,本投资回报率不是很高;若本轮伐期内没有政府补贴,林地总利润为51.7万元,资金盈利率只有1.4%,大大低于同期银行的年利率;建议政府对民营资金投资林业给与一定的补贴奖励,使民营资本和社会政府达到双赢效益。     

Harvesting Choices and Timber Supply among Landowners in the Southern United States

The recent rise of institutional timberland ownership has led to a significant change in the structure and conduct of the timber industry in the United States. In this study, we apply a two‐period harvest model to assess the timber harvesting behavior of various landowners at the stand level by utilizing USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data for nine southern states. Forest industry and institutional timberland owners were found to be more likely to conduct partial and final harvests than nonindustrial private forest landowners. Aggregately, Timberland Investment Management Organizations were found to be most, and timberland Real Estate Investment Trusts to be least, price‐responsive among ownership groups.     

The Vanishing Free Market: The Formation and Spread of the British and US Food Regimes

In this paper, I compare the formation of food regimes during British and US hegemony, which were mirror-images in terms of the degree of free trade and state regulation as well as the direction of trade flow of grains. Many scholars recognize that the foundation for each regime was laid by the national policy and dominant political coalition in the world-economic hegemon, but my analysis pays particular attention to the divisions and coalitions within agriculture as forces that drove the shape of each regime. Though important agricultural divisions existed in each case, the political power of the resulting agricultural coalitions – and those coalitions' relations to the nation's dominant coalition – are central to understanding the formation and spread of each food regime.     

近12年美国大豆种植格局的时空演变研究

我国是全球最大的大豆消费国和进口国,而美国是最大的大豆生产国和出口国,研究美国大豆种植格局的时空演变特征,分析其变化趋势,为我国大豆生产提供重要参考,降低我国对美国转基因大豆的依赖程度,有利于我国大豆产业的健康、可持续发展.本研究以美国农业部提供的NASS-CDL计划数据和美国大豆生产的农业基础数据,利用ArcGIS ...     

Interaction Effects among Labeled Attributes for Eggs in the United States

New labels for food products continue to be introduced in the United States. This paper estimates interaction effects among labeled attributes for eggs to investigate cases where affixing labels of “premium” attributes would indeed gain additional premiums in the U.S. market. A latent class analysis identified four consumer segments (Attribute Seekers, Price Checkers, Local Supporters, and Combination Responders). Several interaction effects were sufficiently large in magnitude to neutralize the main effects, but differently for each segment. While the combination of certified-organic with cage-free or local label yielded negative premiums in certain segments, the premium Attribute Seekers were willing to pay were considerable. Across all segments, preferences for locally produced products were robust singly or in combinations. Consideration of interaction effects and consumer segments are recommended for effective labeling strategies.     

美国乡村旅游发展

美国乡村近一个世纪以来一直经历着急剧的变化,这在二战后尤其如此。全球化及美国经济重组使传统的乡村经济活动如农业,林业及煤矿业竞争力下降,乡村旅游就成为乡村经济复苏及经济多样化的一个重要且有效的手段。在参阅相关文献的基础上,概括和分析了美国乡村旅游发展的历程和原因,以及乡村旅游发展对社区的影响等,以期对中国乡村旅游的发展、管理和研究能起到一定的借鉴作用。     

The Economic impact of public agricultural research and development in the United States

In this article, we examine the relationship between public investments in agricultural research and development and the productivity‐enhancing benefits they generate. Knowledge productivity functions are estimated for U.S. agriculture using data on multifactor productivity and public knowledge stocks. We examine the time‐series properties of the data and compare alternative econometric estimation procedures. The results are used to calculate economic performance measures such as internal rates of return and benefit‐cost ratios. The real rate of return to public investments in agricultural research and development in the United States is in the range of 8–10% per annum.     

Possibilities and Constraints of Market‐Led Land Reforms in Southern Africa: An Analysis of Transfers of Commercial Farmland in Postcolonial Zimbabwe, 1980–2000

This paper provides a systematic basis, hitherto missing in the current scholarship, to quantify land transfers in Zimbabwe after 1980. It uses title deed information to determine year of sale via a number of sources. The main finding of this research is that a great deal of land changed ownership during this period, which, if the government had been committed to land reform, it could have acted upon. Evidence suggests as much as 67 per cent of white‐owned land changed ownership after 1980. The second is that, while a large amount of land did change hands, it was not the 80 per cent that many white farmers and their supporters have claimed. The figure of 69 per cent is still very high, but it is apparent that much of this did not represent ‘true’ transfer of land. By further investigating the land that did change hands, this paper also raises questions about (a) the possibilities of market‐led land reform in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa, and (b) the relationship between white capital and the new political elite in the postcolonial state.     

Towards an agrarian question of circulation: Walmart's expansion in Chile and the agrarian political economy of supply chain capitalism

The central role that infrastructures of circulation and connectivity—logistical, financial, and digital—have come to perform in the reproduction of agro‐food systems calls for an expanded conception of agriculture that integrates dialectically the production of economic value and its subsequent realization in the sphere of exchange. Through the case of Walmart's expansion in Chile, and on the basis of a critical theorization of the circulation of capital, this paper proposes an agrarian question of circulation in which the apparently distinct realms of food production, transport, storage, and consumption are brought together into a contradictory and yet unitary whole. The case of Walmart Chile is illustrative of how the reconfiguration of spaces of urban mass consumption and the organizational restructuring of agro‐industrial hinterlands constitute each other in intricate ways. An agrarian question of circulation, the paper concludes, bears important political implications for rethinking the scope and extent of contemporary discussions on agrarian reform being put forward by transnational rural organizations.