[lbo-talk] agricultural productivity

[Alan Rudy]

I didn't argue that everything was unequivocally bad, though James has
argued that pretty much everything's been good - except for the distribution
of value to agricultural laborers (which he seems to simultaneously see as
declining, because it is the foundation of his productivity argument) but
not see as a problem since the value will be concentrated in the small
numbers of agricultural laborers capitalism leaves behind when James'
revolution happens - I argued that we've learned enough from the
superabundant contradictions to do way way way way better... to produce
more, better food distributed more equitably.

At the same time, anyone want to pay me to give them a tour of California's
Imperial Valley and then walk across the border for a tour of the Mexicali
Valley.  Now, that's some capitalist agriculture for you and, I believe, not
something most of us would argue is in the slightest bit healthy or
sustainable... however "productive" it is.  For enough money, we could also
head over to the Salt River valley in Arizona for even more fun.  My dad
could probably walk us around those really robust "farms" in SE New Mexico.
Friends could provide pretty similar tours of the Central Valley... and then
others all the land that used to be agricultural in the triangle from San
Diego to Santa Barbara to Riverside and/or all the land that used to be
agricultural in and surrounding San Jose, CA.  It wouldn't take much to have
us explore the issues tied to the accelerated extraction of water from the
Oglalla Aquifer, I'd imagine... And I'm sure there is someone on the list
who could give us a tour of all the land that used to be agricultural around
Mexico City and others who'd be happy to tour us around the once-ejidal
lands now irrigated across hundreds of acres to produce crops for export
across Mexico.  I have other friends who, for the right fee, would might be
able to provide tours around that productive marvel and social ecological
disaster that is the Punjab.  I know an ex-colleague at MSU who has studied
the massive export flower production enterprises around Lake Victoria in
Africa... etc.

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 9:37 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


>
> On Apr 19, 2010, at 9:27 AM, brad bauerly wrote:
>
>  I think any attempt to paint everything to come out of capitalist
>> agriculture, or capitalism, as bad is really dangerous for the left.
>>
>
> Besides, you'll have a serious credibility problem. People will respond
> more positively to a "we can do much better than this" kind of argument than
> an "everything sucks and is getting worse" one.
>
> Doug
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>

-- 
*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy
Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Central Michigan University
124 Anspach Hall
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
517-881-6319