Editor’s Letter: Agriculture and the Rural Environment
From agribusiness to climate change to new alternative crops, agriculture faces an evolving panorama in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Category: Agriculture
Local “sweetening” of the Cocoa Commodity? Alternative Economies in the Peruvian Amazon
The road was nearly impassable again because of the rain.
Agro-technological Revolutions in Latin America
When we speak about a revolution in agriculture in Latin American history, most scholars rightly think of peasant revolts, land tenure struggles or commodification of crops, to name a few of the most salient themes.
Açaí and Beyond
We are part of an agro-socio-biodiversity that connects human and non-human lives. Natural ecosystems, culture and different ways of being connect and sustain the lives of the Amazonian peoples. We understand that sustainability—reflected in both new and traditional crops— is built on the ancestry that exists in each territory.
Coastal Wetlands in Latin America: From Stinking Swamps to Treasured Sites
Dark. Utterly dark. The tunnel accessing the former quarry in El Chiflón del Diablo (The Devil’s Blast) branches out into several smaller shafts, where miners used to extract coal.
Pesticide Use among Potato Smallholders in Honduras
Can a simple agronomic device save Honduras’ potato crops? We certainly hope so and are involved in designing and promoting a tool that regulates pesticide use. You might not think of Honduras in terms of potatoes, but they are a mainstay of local agriculture.
Quinoa: A Super Grain, Not a Silver Bullet
Quinoa, a bit player in the global food scene two decades ago, was scarcely known outside of where it was grown in the Andes.
From the Congo River to the Inca Trail: Improved Weather Predictions for Agriculture
A river of clouds blanketing the pass as each footstep feels heavier than the last. I was hiking along the Dead Woman’s Pass on the Inca trail in Peru in November 2018.
Territories and Agroecologies: Diversity in a Time of Transition
As professors who are passionate about the field of agroecology, we’ve witnessed in the last three decades a new emphasis in agricultural studies on the intrinsic link with nature. The approach in farming that emphasized production of one-crop yields without taking other factors into account led to a devaluation of the impact of agriculture on the degradation of freshwater, soil and the health of producers and workers.
Slow-Release Arsenic
Arsenic is a geological and historical fact in Mexico and much of the Americas. As early as 1896, cotton planters used arsenic to kill cotton pests in Costa Chica, Guerrero in Mexico, (La Tierra, 1896).
Economics and Reconstruction in Colombia
Many rural areas in Colombia face the double challenge of participating in an increasingly dynamic global economy and of recovering from the country’s 60-year civil war.
Container Pollution: Pesticides in the Chillón River Valley and Its Challenges
We arrive at the Chillón River Valley to the wide agricultural fields of strawberries, lettuce and broccoli.
The Impact of Soybeans in Argentina and Beyond: A Double-Edged Sword?
[English + Español]
What have been the impacts of the sweeping expansion of soybean production in South America, particularly in Argentina?
Government Procurement: Empowering Small-Scale Farmers in Brazil
Several years ago, as a university student at a federal public institution in Brazil, I had the privilege of availing myself of meals priced at a highly affordable 1.45 Brazilian reais (U.S. $0.30).
Santa Inés Micro watershed: Social Impact and Learning Opportunities
In the hillsides of central Honduras lies Santa Inés micro watershed, a region rich in natural resources but, as in many areas in Central America, facing poverty and pressing social and environmental challenges.
The Berry Revolution: Non-Traditional Agriculture and Economic Opportunity in Mexico
A revolution has taken place in the produce section of U.S. supermarkets over the past two decades: year-round berries.
Nuggets of Carbon: Cashew, Chocolate and Carbon Farming in Colombia
I am contemplating a serving of pad thai at a restaurant table, and as I twirl the noodles around my fork for the next mouthful, I rearrange the plate’s ingredients to identify them. I’m at a well-known Thai food chain in Colombia, and my decision to come here today is not an accident.
Rural Agriculture and the Cities
What do recipes have to do with the transformation of rural agriculture?
The Chiapaneco: Mayan Oral History of a Climate Disaster
On the steep, westernmost slopes of the Chuchumatanes mountains in Guatemala, a string of villages nestled between forests and cornfields make up the Mam Mayan town of San Juan Atitán.
Family Roots in the Brazilian Countryside: A Story of Departures and Returns
Warm tears dropped on my lap as I hopelessly stared at the cows in the pasture. Nobody had told me so, but—as my dad drove us away—I knew that was the last time I would contemplate that landscape.
