Consider the example of export agriculture in Central America. The bulk of the foods ( bean, corn, rice) eaten by the poor in Central America is grown by small farmers on marginal lands. At the same time, ‘virtually all the fertile, flat agricultural lands in the region [are] used for export oriented crops.’ (134)
The story of beef provides a striking example. (135) In the 1950s, almost all the beef slaughtered in Central America was eaten locally. Then in the 1957 the first beef-packing plant approved by the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) was built. By the late 1970s, three-fourths of Central America’s beef was exported (136). By 1978, Central America provided the US with 250 million pounds of beef every year. U.S.-backed development programs built roads and over one-half of the loans made by the World Bank and the International American Development Bank for agricultural and rural development in Central America went to promote the production of beef for export (137).
Wealthy elites made great profits. But large numbers of poor farmers growing basic foodstuffs were pushed off the land as the ranchers demanded more and more grazing land to grow beef for export. In El Salvador, before the first USDA-approved beef-packing plant was opened, 29 percent of rural households were landless. By 1980, one-all of all El Salvador’s beef was going to the U.S.-and 65 percent of the rural households were landless (138). It would be silly, of course, to suggest that the growing of beef exports caused the landlessness. Peasants lacked land for many reasons. But the beef industry was one of the factors. The poor protested, but the ranchers painted the peasant activists as communists. The national security forces trained by the U.S. often used repressive tactics, including torture and murder, to put down peasant protesters. (139) ‘Local ranchers in this way got free eviction forces, armed and trained at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.’ (140)
Let me be very clear. I am not arguing that Central America should not export beef. It does have a competitive advantage over many areas in producing grass-fed beef. With different policies it would probably be possible to expand beef exports in a way that did not oppress the poor or destroy the environment. (Unfortunately, vast tropical forests were burned to provide new pasturelands.) But it was not done that way.
Instead, the poor suffered to produce cheap hamburgers for American consumers. Since the 1960s, beef consumption within Central America has declined 20 percent. The poor cannot compete with us. A study by the Pan American Health Organization showed that between 1969 and 1975, malnutrition rose by 67 percent among children five years and under. Not surprisingly, far more of the children in Central America than in the U.S. were dying by the age of six. Poor people don’t need communists to tell them that is a bad deal.
This is an excerpt from Ronald Sider’s book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. p. 161-163
Now my thoughts:
Reading things like this just leaves me with a strong desire to do something, but here is no easy answer of what to do. i do not want to support systems like this and i even have a desire to fight unjust systems like this, but how do we do that and we can’t go back in time. we can’t take away what’s been done. but we can ask what do we do from here. what is my personal role, but also what as a group of people that want to promote justice in this world and help people, who are left to live with the negative affects of these unjust systems, have their voices heard and stand with them? there are no easy answers, but i strongly believe that the answer is not to just continue life just the same and continue thinking in the same way. i think the first step is to change our thinking and perspective, but i desire action too and that is where i am left with uncertainty. what action?
ENDNOTES:
134. J. Jeffery Leonard, Natural Resources and Economic Development in Central America: A Regional Environment Profile, 179-80.
135. Robert G. Williams, Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America.
136. Ibid., 1970.
137. Beverly Keene, “Export Cropping in Central America.”
138. Williams, Export Agriculture, 170.
139. Ogelsby & Shaull, Containment and Change, 72-111. Amnesty International, Report on Torture. At the Crossroads: The Future of Foreign Aid, 15. “School of the Dictators,” New York Times, Sept 28, 1996, 22. Penny Lernoux, Cry of the People.
140. Williams, Export Agriculture, 180
Following Iris 
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