Re: [Marxism] World proletarianisation/Help Mr. Jurrian.

["Julio Huato" <juliohuato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:

> I debated Borlaug at Santa Barbara about 30 years ago -- I am fuzzy on the
> date, but he had received his Nobel prize recently.  He could not attend in
> person because of some problem, so he participated by phone.

I'd have loved to watch that debate.

> Neither of us were impressed with the other.

Call me a sucker, but I'm impressed with both of you.

> I had been thinking more about the Green Revolution in India at the time,
> but I was under the impression that the GR in Mexico was closely associated
> with scarce water being given to richer landowners.

Land and water distribution are obviously decisive in any practical
application of technology in agriculture.  But neither of them was under the
control of Borlaug et alia.

That said, in the 1940s and 1950s land ownership (and water control) was the
least concentrated ever in Mexico's history.  It was right after the great
land distributions under the Agrarian Reform launched by Lázaro Cárdenas in
the late 1930s.  At the time Mexico was a predominantly rural society, and
land distribution and wealth distribution overlapped a lot.  So if there was
a point in 20th century Mexico's history where a technological revolution
was poised to benefit more people, it was precisely then.  Poor producers
couldn't reap more benefits because of the political economy of import
substitution, the industrialization strategy in effect between the mid 1950s
and the early 1980s.

> Anyway, I gave my critique of the GR in Farming for Profit in a Hungry
> World.

Out of print.  You send me a copy and I'll send you a check.

Julio

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