Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian Capitalism in Costa RicaPesticides, a short-term aid for farmers, can often be harmful, undermining the long-term health of agriculture, ecosystems, and people. The United States and other industrialized countries import food from Costa Rica and other regions. To safeguard the public health, importers now regulate the level and types of pesticides used in the exportersÕ food production, which creates Òregulatory riskÓ for the export farmers. Although farmers respond to export regulations by trying to avoid illegal pesticide residues, the food produced for their domestic market lacks similar regulation, creating a double standard of pesticide use. Food Systems in an Unequal World examines the agrochemical-dependent agriculture of Costa Rica and how its uneven regulation in export versus domestic markets affects Costa Rican vegetable farmers. Examining pesticide-dependent vegetable production within two food systems, the author shows that pesticide use is shaped by three main forces: agrarian capitalism, the governance of food systems throughout the commodity chain, and ecological dynamics driving local food production. Those processes produce unequal outcomes that disadvantage less powerful producers who have more limited choices than larger farmers, who usually have access to better growing environments and thereby can reduce pesticide use and production costs. ÊDespite the rise of alternative food networks, Galt says, persistent problems remain in the conventional food system, including widespread and intensive pesticide use. Facing domestic price squeezes, vegetable farmers in Costa Rica are more likely to supply the national market with produce containing residues of highly toxic pesticides, while using less toxic pesticides on exported vegetables. In seeking solutions, Galt argues for improved governance and research into alternative pest control but emphasizes the process must be rooted in farmersÕ economic well-being. |
Contents
Pesticide Problems Pesticide Paradoxes | 3 |
1 Farm Households Environmental Geography and Agrarian Capitalism | 40 |
2 Socioeconomic Differentiation and Geographies of Nature | 67 |
3 An Environmental History of Agricultural Industrialization | 88 |
4 Policing Pesticides | 120 |
5 Regulatory Risk and the Temptations of Methamidophos | 152 |
6 It Just Goes to Kill Ticos | 171 |
A Green Agriculture for the Green Republic? | 205 |
Study Methodology | 218 |
Detailed Pesticide Data | 229 |
Notes | 237 |
Glossary of Pesticide Terms | 247 |
251 | |
284 | |
About the Author | 292 |
Other editions - View all
Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian ... Ryan E. Galt Limited preview - 2014 |
Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian ... Ryan E. Galt No preview available - 2017 |
Food Systems in an Unequal World: Pesticides, Vegetables, and Agrarian ... Ryan E. Galt No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
active ingredient agrarian capitalism agricultural agrifood agrochemical agroexport average avermectin Bacillus thuringiensis carbamates Cartago Province chapter chayote export chayote farmers chemical chlorpyrifos cide Cipreses cloud belt commodity chains consumers contract farming Costa Rica cypermethrin developing countries disease dose ecological economic endosulfan environmental export chayote export crops export farmers export firms export market export minisquash farmer surveys fungicides Galt green bean harvest hectare important increased industrial input insecticides interview land late blight manager maneb methamidophos Mini-Horta minivegetable exporters national market vegetables Northern Cartago off-farm capital ofthe OP/C OP/C OP/C open national market organic organochlorine organophosphates percent pest pesti pesticide intensive pesticide residues pesticide-use plant poisoning political ecology potato potato farmers potato production pyrethroids regulation regulatory risk residue tests residue violations Rica’s Rican sectors social spatial spray squash synthetic pesticides Thrupp ticide tion tolerances tomato toxic Ujarrás Valley vegetable production