The Death of Ramon Gonzalez - The Modern Agricultural Dilemma - Essay Example

The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: A Critical Literary Review The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma is a book which has a number ofdifferent incredibly significant issues and matters, and it is one which is a dramatic yet readable story which offers a new and innovative method of looking at and viewing the human and environmental consequences of chemical-dependant agriculture. In this book Wright presents an incredibly intelligent and understandable case study regarding the Mexican export vegetable industry and as well of migrant farm workers, and this case study of Wright’s goes to show how what we tend to call ‘agricultural development’ is really not that, but rather a sort of headlong rush toward ecological catastrophe. Although this book has many different points which should absolutely be taken seriously into consideration, the aim of this paper is to address and discuss several in particular. Here we will be discussing, in specific regards to this book of Wright’s, how Mexican land reform policy failed to address the disparities between the poor and the wealthy of Mexico, how fear is shown to shape the lives of the people that are featured and where this fear comes from, as well as how Mexico’s government fails the workers in terms of protecting them and how this is to blame for the failure passed along and how this harms the environment. Be thoroughly addressing and discussing these particular issues, we will not only be able to better understand the book itself, but as well about the author and the main point of view that he was attempting to get across. This is what will be dissertated in the following. In regards to the first issue of how Mexican land reform policy failed to address the disparities between the poor and the wealthy of Mexico, there are actually several answers that are included here. In the book we are told about how “Throughout history, popular discontent with land-related institutions has been one of the most common factors in provoking revolutionary movements and other social upheavals…as well as how…To those who labor upon the land, the private landowner’s government-enforced privilege of appropriating a substantial portion – in some cases half or even more – of production without making a commensurate (or indeed any) contribution to production is self-evidently a rank injustice” (29). We are shown in this book as well as how although Mexico initiated an agrarian reform program over half a century ago which for the most part created positive results, at the same time it failed to properly incorporate the disparities between the poor and the wealthy of Mexico, and in fact ended up creating even more dispute and disruption in this regards. The book also tells about how the vision of Mexico’s rural future envisaged by the reformers was actually one of the more large scale modern agroindustries, and as well about that of prosperous medium-scale private capitalist firms. Early land reform was mainly designed to serve for the political purpose of stopping peasant rebellions, particularly that of rebellions by indigenous Indian communities and this has incredibly important consequences for modern agrarian structures. As well, “In central Mexico, the area around Mexico City, peasants who received land in the 1920s often only received a hectare or so. This type of land grant was seen as simply a supplement to wage. It was assumed that ejidatarios would continue to work as day-laborers (jornaleros) for private farmers, as they had worked for the pre-revolutionary haciendas, or that they would migrate to the cities” (101). When it comes to the matter of how the emotion of fear worked to shape the lives of the people featured in this book of Wright’s, this is actually an incredibly important and major issue. The majority of the fear is caused by the fact of how – as previously discussed – the Mexican land reform policy failed to properly address the disparities between the poor and the wealthy of Mexico, and thus the poor were left with even less than what they started with, and they more than anyone else were put in fear for their overall well-being, as they were given very little to survive with and strive on. It was the wealthy who were continuing to receive more and more, and those who actually needed assistance were actually being pushed farther away and receiving less help after the Mexican land reform policy than even before. In fact one of the key themes to the entire book is in relation to this particular issue, which is that the problems inherent in modern agricultural production are primarily political; “not the obstacles thrown up by cruel nature, but adversities created by unresolved human conflict” (285). The fear that is present and portrayed in people’s lives in this book comes from many different areas of life, however a large part of it is caused by the government, and how the government has lacked in responding properly to the needs of the people in Mexico, on various different issues. Then we have the matter of how Mexico’s government failed the workers in terms of protecting them, and this is one which is of great complexity as well. After all there are many different instances which are described within the book which go to show how the government failed in this regards, and as Wright states in the book: The problem is that ignorance and unregulated promotion of dangerous technologies are intimately tied to the political relationships and the ideological assumptions that determine how a nation is ruled. Abusive use of pesticides is usually the result of a whole set of problems that indicate the loyalties and purposes of the people and groups who hold power. The problem of tens of thousands of acres of fine farmland given over to large-scale commercial production of crops through abusive use of pesticides by millionaire farmers is strongly related to the continued powerlessness of peasants and farm workers and their relative ignorance of the safeguards needed in applying modern technologies. This situation is in turn related to much broader political and economic issues involving a nation’s relationship with the rest of the world. The fact that 70% of the pesticides used in the Third World are used on products for export to wealthy nations expresses the strong connection of pesticide abuse to the particular kind of relationship that predominates between rich and poor countries. In addition, the Mixtec farm workers who tie Culiacan to the collapsing traditional regions in Mexico also tie Mexico to California, Texas, Arizona and force us to ask how the unequal development of Mexico will affect the future of the United States (217-218). Wrights point of departure is the death of a young Mixtec named Ramon Gonzalez (the name was fictionalized for the study) while picking tomatoes as a migrant laborer in the Culiacan Valley. Though definitive evidence is hard to come by, the cause of his death was most likely pesticide poisoning. Like the overwhelming majority of workers Wright observed, Ramon worked in close contact with dangerous chemicals without having been provided with any of the recommended safety equipment. In addition, he had to bathe in an irrigation ditch that contained pesticide residues. Wrights pursuit of these details soon led him to broader inquiry into how the logic of agricultural development in Mexico led Ramon to be working under such dangerous conditions. The family of Ramon Gonzalez was from Oaxaca in southern Mexico, a Mixtec region whose culture runs back over a thousand years. Drawing on first-hand observations, Wright offers a sympathetic portrait of this region and its people. He describes in detail their tradition of subsistence agriculture and the cultural underpinnings of that tradition. Over the centuries the Mixtec emphasis on economic security and community solidarity has come into conflict with the alternative values and practices of various ruling elites in Mexico. As Wright succinctly puts it, "Peasants dream of relatively autonomous rural communities within what is presumed to be a closed natural system. Elites dream of greater consumption, growth, and monumental undertakings" (p.186). As well, during the 1940s, these competing world views clashed when Avila Camacho replaced Lazaro Cardenas as President. Cardenas had instituted policies that strengthened rural regions by redistributing land to peasants, while Camacho instituted new policies to boost agricultural productivity via exports. Camacho invited Rockefeller Foundation scientists into the country, and the Green Revolution was born. Wright characterizes the results: If the drive for industrialization creates severe regional inequalities, more damage is done. This is especially clear in the case that is the centerpiece of this book-the brutal exploitation of the poverty and environmental ruin of one region to promote reckless, environmentally destructive growth in another-the relationship that ties Culiacan to the Mixteca. The problems of the poorer region deepen, and the very cheapness and abundance of labor flowing out of the poor region encourage a cavalier attitude toward the health and loyalty of workers. Because workers are abundant and desperate, they are considered expendable. Wright demonstrates how the narrow technical perspective of Green Revolution scientists contributed directly to the plans social and environmental failures. Many of these failures were predicted by early critics of the plan who had a greater understanding of Mexicos history, culture and politics. Wrights review of this history makes a powerful case for why a systems approach to agricultural development is needed. Wright believes that the logic of agricultural modernization in Mexico, and its dependence on pesticides, is technically and politically self-defeating. Created to boost industrialization and create a wealthier and healthier society, the modernization program has instead enriched a few rich producers while undermining the environmental and social health of the majority. The drain of rising health and welfare expenses, and social pressures resulting from massive migration into the cities, stand in the way of further economic progress. At the same time, persistent problems with pest resistance and declining soil quality make it doubtful that current levels of agricultural production can be maintained. Overall from this review we can conclude many different things, several of particular importance, and namely the fact that although many parts of this story have been told before, Wright makes it unique in this particular case by weaving them together into an incredibly complex and coherent picture which results in linking technical concerns about pesticide practices to their cultural and political contexts, and for instance, Wright documents that the recent trend towards greater use of “nonpersistent pesticides”, chemicals which work by leaving few lasting residues in the food and the environment but which are still dangerous, particularly upon immediate exposure in the field. Wright also notes that “this shift has weakened the political linkages between farm workers and consumers…The precise degree of linkage between consumer interests, environmental interests, and the interests of farm workers and rural residents is not a given but rather changes as the technology of pesticides changes, severely complicating judgments about what constitutes safe pesticides” (202). We are able to attain a seriously profound and knowledgeable viewpoint from this book, particularly in regards to Mexico’s government and how it has failed both to acknowledge the disparities between the wealthy and the poor and well failed to protect workers across the country; Wright offers an incredibly insightful and intelligent piece of literature which truly works to explain the problems with the Mexican government and the steps that need to be taken in order for solutions to be able to come about. Works Cited Wright, Angus Lindsay. The Death of Ramon: Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1990. Read More