Geographies of empire

Infrastructure and agricultural intensification in Haiti

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5289922
AutoresSophie Sapp Moore (0000-0001-8208-6482, Rice University Houston Texas USA, autor de correspondencia), Victoria Koski‐karell (0000-0001-7630-2572, University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan USA)
Año2023
Volumen189
Número4
Páginas625-637
Fecha de publicación2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGeographical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0016-7398 • E-ISSN: 1475-4959
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/geoj.12506
OpenAlexW4312203560
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas32

The implementation of US-backed agricultural initiatives under what became known as the Green Revolution (1945-1970) reshaped populations, ecologies, and landscapes worldwide. While most investigations into the implications of this era focus on the development of intensive farming in places such as Mexico, India, and the Philippines, few offer critical analysis of its Caribbean manifestations. This paper examines the role of the Green Revolution in the production of environmental injustice in Haiti. Historically, we situate Green Revolution technopolitics in a broader trajectory of US-led imperial and neoliberal interventions that spans from the Occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) to the 21st century. We draw from our long-term ethnographic research to show how Green Revolution transformations impact agrarian life in Haiti's lower Artibonite Valley and Central Plateau today. Integral to the Occupation were efforts to (re)establish production of export commodities. We demonstrate how such attempts, regardless of outcome, generated indelible material, social, and ecological entanglements that served to intensify empire. In 1949, the US and Haitian governments established an agency tasked with extending Occupation-era irrigation infrastructure throughout the Artibonite Valley. After these efforts stalled, 1970s interventionists sought different inroads for increasing agricultural production, particularly of rice. Their initiatives paved the way for post-2010 ventures that perpetuate many of the same consequences, including hunger, economic insecurity, and environmental degradation. We show how the history of imperial intervention in Haiti created the conditions for the ongoing production of environmental injustice through agrarian reform. Ultimately, we argue that the Green Revolution transformed Haiti's agrarian geographies in ways that intensified environmental harms and advanced a project of US empire that continues to shape Haiti today. We examine the contemporary implications of this century of transformation for farmers, who carry on a legacy of agrarian justice that has contested the project of the Green Revolution since its inception

Agency (philosophy · Agrarian reform · Agrarian society · Agricultural revolution · Agriculture · Archaeology · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Empire · Environmental degradation · Geography · Green Revolution · Injustice · Intervention (counseling · Political economy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Ecology · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure