Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
In the mid-twentieth century, researchers at an experiment station in Sonora's Yaqui Valley designed high-yielding wheat seeds with the promise that increasing crop productivity would end world hunger. The seeds made their way across the world, where accompanying inputs such as fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation systems transformed global farming in what came to be known as the Green Revolution. Gabriela Soto Laveaga challenges this history—often told from the point of view of philanthropic organizations, development proselytizers, or heroic American scientists—by placing native lands, Sonoran farmers, Mexican innovation, and Mexico-India connections at the center. Presenting groundbreaking archival research, The World in a Wheat Field sheds new light on how global initiatives changed a local place and points to why so many development projects failed to eradicate hunger worldwide.
Gabriela Soto Laveaga is Professor of the History of Science and Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico at Harvard University. She is the author of Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill.
Contents
Preface
List of Acronyms
Introduction: The Fragility of Possibility
1. Mapping Water, Conquering Land: The Fluid Conquest of the Yaqui Valley
Mario Luna Romero, Water Activist
2. Land Reforms and State-Controlled Water
Víctor Raúl Mercado Ruvalcaba, Agronomist
3. An Indian Refugee, Mexican Agronomists, and the Socialist Origins of the Green Revolution
Finding Agronomists in Daughters’ Memories
4. The World in an Experiment Station
Teresa Rodríguez, Program Coordinator, Global Wheat Program
5. Patronato in the Fields: New Research Models from Northern Mexico
Mayo Felix, Agricultor
6. Transporting the Myth: Who Feeds the World?
Ana Luisa Ordaz Cano, Seed Coordinator
7. Octavio Paz, Indian Farmers, and Mexican Seeds in Indian Fields
Dr. Bharathi, Farmer—and Translating Science
8. Punjab, India: Crossings and Blind Spots
Nele Verhulst, CIMMYT Agronomist
9. The Possibility of Development: Imported Agriculture and a Changed Reality on the Ground
Doña Paula: More Than Wheat, and Threats More Dangerous Than Drought
Conclusion: The Stories We Tell: The Ruins of Possibility from Yaqui Struggles to Drought’s Dust
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index