1993 Volume 66 Issue 1 Pages 35-51
The impact of transnational corporations on developing countries is particularly evident in agriculture and the food industry that is linked with it. These corporations have access to different markets, for different kinds of products; and to new technologies, incorporating different kinds of inputs, such as machinery, fertilizers and herbicides. They influence the prices of both agricultural products and their inputs, control the supply of investment capital and agricultural infrastructure, and influence government policies about trade and investment.
In Mexico the ‘transnationalization’ of agriculture includes both the transformation of the food industry and the impacts on agricultural production areas. The former can be studied at the national scale, on a sector by sector basis, including livestock, cereals and oilseeds, and fruit and vegetables. Each agricultural sector is linked with other industries which process and market the products or provide specialized inputs.
The transnationalization of a rural area is examined in a case study of Bajio in the State of Guanajuato. Directly (with their own production) or indirectly (providing markets for local producers), the transnationals have shifted agricultural production away from basic grains such as corn, toward cereals and oilseeds and fruit and vegetables; integrating the region into a national and international food system.
