LEADER 05938nam 22011894a 450 001 9910780080603321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-520-92381-2 010 $a1-282-35645-3 010 $a9786612356452 010 $a1-59734-678-0 024 7 $a10.1525/9780520923812 035 $a(CKB)111056485639880 035 $a(EBL)223600 035 $a(OCoLC)475928531 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000179688 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11183115 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000179688 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10138727 035 $a(PQKB)11011016 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000055919 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC223600 035 $a(OCoLC)49570022 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse30584 035 $a(DE-B1597)519666 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780520923812 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL223600 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10054460 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL235645 035 $a(dli)HEB31240 035 $a(MiU)MIU01000000000000012353873 035 $a(EXLCZ)99111056485639880 100 $a20000404d2000 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|||||||nn|n 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aInsatiable appetite$b[electronic resource] $ethe United States and the ecological degradation of the tropical world /$fRichard P. Tucker 210 $aBerkeley $cUniversity of California Press$dc2000 215 $a1 online resource (567 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-520-22087-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 437-524) and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tAcknowledgments --$tIntroduction --$t1. America's Sweet Tooth: The Sugar Trust And The Caribbean Lowlands --$t2. Lords Of The Pacific: Sugar Barons In The Hawaiian And Philippine Islands --$t3. Banana Republics: Yankee Fruit Companies And The Tropical American Lowlands --$t4. The Last Drop: The American Coffee Market And The Hill Regions Of Latin America --$t5. The Tropical Cost Of The Automotive Age: Corporate Rubber Empires And The Rainforest --$t6. The Crop On Hooves: Yankee Interests In Tropical Cattle Ranching --$t7. Unsustainable Yield: American Foresters And Tropical Timber Resources --$tConclusion --$tAppendix --$tNotes --$tBibliography --$tIndex 330 $aIn the late 1800's American entrepreneurs became participants in the 400-year history of European economic and ecological hegemony in the tropics. Beginning as buyers in the tropical ports of the Atlantic and Pacific, they evolved into land speculators, controlling and managing the areas where tropical crops were grown for carefully fostered consumer markets at home. As corporate agro-industry emerged, the speculators took direct control of the ecological destinies of many tropical lands. Supported by the U.S. government's diplomatic and military protection, they migrated and built private empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Yankee investors and plantation managers mobilized engineers, agronomists, and loggers to undertake what they called the "Conquest of the Tropics," claiming to bring civilization to benighted peoples and cultivation to unproductive nature. In competitive cooperation with local landed and political elites, they not only cleared natural forests but also displaced multicrop tribal and peasant lands with monocrop export plantations rooted in private property regimes. This book is a rich history of the transformation of the tropics in modern times, pointing ultimately to the declining biodiversity that has resulted from the domestication of widely varied natural systems. Richard P. Tucker graphically illustrates his study with six major crops, each a virtual empire in itself-sugar, bananas, coffee, rubber, beef, and timber. He concludes that as long as corporate-dominated free trade is ascendant, paying little heed to its long-term ecological consequences, the health of the tropical world is gravely endangered. 606 $aTropical crops$xEconomic aspects$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aTropical crops$xEnvironmental aspects$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aInvestments, American$zTropics$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aEnvironmental degradation$zTropics$xHistory$y20th century 610 $aagriculture. 610 $aamerican history. 610 $abananas. 610 $abeef. 610 $abiodiversity. 610 $acaribbean. 610 $acentral america. 610 $acivilization. 610 $acoffee. 610 $acommerce. 610 $acommodities. 610 $aconservation. 610 $acultivation. 610 $aecology. 610 $aenvironment. 610 $aenvironmental history. 610 $aenvironmental impact. 610 $aenvironmentalism. 610 $aforest. 610 $afree trade. 610 $aland speculation. 610 $alatin american history. 610 $amonocrops. 610 $anonfiction. 610 $apacific. 610 $aplantations. 610 $arubber. 610 $asouth america. 610 $asoutheast asia. 610 $asugar. 610 $atimber. 610 $atrade. 610 $atransnational history. 610 $atropical crops. 610 $atropical lands. 610 $atropical ports. 610 $atropics. 610 $awest africa. 610 $awhite mans burden. 615 0$aTropical crops$xEconomic aspects$xHistory 615 0$aTropical crops$xEnvironmental aspects$xHistory 615 0$aInvestments, American$xHistory 615 0$aEnvironmental degradation$xHistory 676 $a333.7/0913 700 $aTucker$b Richard P.$f1938-$01016746 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910780080603321 996 $aInsatiable appetite$92380608 997 $aUNINA