Exporting the Crisis: U.S. Agriculture and the Third World

Abstract

Crises in the U. S. agricultural sector are placed in the context of the dynamics of the global economic system. These dynamics generate connected and often similar outcomes in the U. S. and the Third World. The farm crisis serves as a window to see links between domestic and international economic processes, and especially the growing role of financial institutions and transnational corporations. Ever-more constrained responses to debt problems by small farm banks and giant international financial institutions have dire developmental consequences for both the U.S. and Third World countries. Global impacts are generated in many ways, which include: (1) bank (and other financial institution) responses to debt in the U. S. and Third World; (2) the economic impact of agricultural commodity prices in the U.S. and the Third World; (3) the human consequences of agricultural dislocation and food availability; and (4) the environmental outcomes of farm policy in the U. S. and in the Third World. The origin and extent of the impacts discussed in this paper suggest that a market efficiency approach to agricultural policy is inadequate to sustain economic vitality or meet human needs nationally and globally.