ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Mexican Peso, Soil Retrogression And Degradation, Neoliberalism
Document Summary
Do not want negative aspects of negative economic system. Government embraced its role as a development actor. Wealth and prosperity for farmers -> technological knowledge and cotton. Era of white gold - everyone was doing well; support families. This era later ends; cotton fades, different crops. Irrigated cotton zones - near rivers (1900-1960) Water is overused; more demand than supply. Cotton prices fell - too much cotton produced in other parts of the world (more supply than demand) Pest problems - irrigated cotton districts only grew cotton for 30 years; pests eat a lot of cotton -> more pesticides -> stronger the bugs get (resistant) Soil degradation - producing the same crop over and over - takes out the nutrients from the soil. Agriculture moved to other crops like corns - had problems as well. Mexican peso devaluation - government said that they have no money to support agriculture and the irrigation system; world banks (imf) were pressing them.
