The USDA has noted the weaknesses of Chinese agriculture too. They have some very low tech problems that could be solved fairly cheaply i.e. pest control in regards to grain storage, irrigation ditch improvements, the usage of the proper types of fertilizers, and improvements in their seed stock quality.
Charles, pollution control, water quality control, air quality control, sanitary sewage etc. isn't rocket science. Neither is electric light rail transportation. That's not what American corporations/multinational corporations are trying to sell the Chinese! They are trying to sell the Chinese on high tech and technology transfer which has nothing to do with the lot of the ordinary Chinese. To the corporations China is the ultimate reserve army of labor and a country where the corporatists can do as they please.
I think Jimmy Carter should check himself into the Betty Ford clinic on this issue.
Tom
Charles Brown wrote:
> >>> Tom Lehman <TLehman at lor.net> 05/05/00 06:32PM >>>
> Charles---Out and out corporate managed trade has the potential to be a
> disaster for us and the Chinese people too.
>
> ___________
>
> CB: Agree, but don't we already have the out and outest corporate managed trade in a long time in neo-liberalism ? Isn't the diasterous potential already fulfilled ?
>
> ____________
>
> The whole agricultural deal with China doesn't add up, as I have mentioned
> in earlier posts. Although reports of pollution, lack of sanitary sewage,
> water treatment and water quality control ring true for the Chinese cities.
> That doesn't necessarily reflect on Chinese agriculture which seems to be in
> pretty healthy shape and could do much better with only minor technical
> improvements as noted by the USDA.
>
> Is China planning a high tech hyper industrialization at the expense of
> Chinese agriculture?
>
> ____________
>
> CB: Isn't it amazing that the Chinese revolution has been wiped out starvation there ? I mean with all those mouths to feed. Seems like that is evidence that the Chinese revolution is rather practical for the working peasant masses who produce all that food.
>
> I don't think the Chinese are out to cheat us in trade, just raise the living standards of their hundreds of millions of folks.
>
> CB
>
> Charles Brown wrote:
>
> > >>> Tom Lehman <uswa12 at Lorainccc.edu> 05/04/00 10:54AM >>>
> > I had an interesting little chat this morning with an editor/journalist
> > of a respected Ohio farm weekly newspaper. This gentleman tells me that
> > it wouldn't surprise him if China buys American agricultural products
> > and then turns around and sells them back to us at a higher price than
> > they paid for them.
> >
> > ___________
> >
> > CB: Is us that dumb ?
> >
> > CB