Hum Ecol (2006) 34:869870

DOI 10.1007/s10745-006-9047-8

BOOK REVIEW

The Death of Ramn Gonzlez: The Modern

Agricultural Dilemma
By Angus Wright. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2005, 400
pp. ISBN 0-292-71268-5 $19.95 (paper)

James R. Keese

Published online: 1 July 2006

# Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006

The Death of Ramn Gonzlez is an important, insightful, and interesting analysis of the
Green Revolution, chemical dependent agriculture, and farm labor in Mexico. Wright argues
that the modern commercial farming system is based on ...a belief system, an ideology, a
world view... (p. xiv) that is generally taken for granted as the only way to produce food in
an urban industrial society. This belief system is grounded in a complete faith in science,
where humans exercise dominion over nature and are disconnected from it. The main goal is
to increase production, but without sufficient attention to the relationship between society and
nature or the cost to the environment. However, given that the Green Revolution has been ...
one of the most important global agents of social and environmental change in the decades after
the end of World War II, (p. 7) scrutiny is warranted. Mexico provides the setting for the
analysis because one of the first Green Revolution experimental centers was located there, and
because much of what was done in Mexico has been applied elsewhere. Wright uses a case study
of a farm worker, and the devastating social and ecological problems that surrounded his life, as
a means to address a series of larger questions about agriculture that have global significance.
The 2005 work is a revision of the 1990 edition. Ten chapters, based on fieldwork
conducted in the 1980s, are a reprint of the first edition. The 60-page afterword provides an
update and insights based on events of the past 15 years. The Death of Ramn Gonzlez is
the story of a poor young Mixteco man from Oaxaca who migrated to the Culicn Valley in
northwestern Mexico to work in the vegetable fields. In 1981, he dies, apparently from
pesticide poisoning. Wright attempts to find out what happened to Ramn Gonzlez, and in
the process critiques the Green Revolution. Wright details the agricultural and pesticide
practices in the Culicn Valley, including gross abuses of regulations, the living and
working conditions of the farm laborers, and the impacts on the environment. Then, he
transports us to Oaxaca in search of the parents of Ramn Gonzlez and to learn about the
place, community, and culture that sends the migrants.
Wright provides a thorough history and overview of the Green Revolution and examines the
relationships among the Mexican government, the Rockefeller Foundation, the US government,
and the international lending institutions that fostered development based on commercial
export-oriented agriculture. Wright meticulously describes the traditional farming system of the
indigenous Mixtecos in Oaxaca and the local knowledge and adaptations that underpin it. He

J. R. Keese (*)
Social Sciences Department, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA
e-mail: jkeese@calpoly.edu
870 Hum Ecol (2006) 34:869870

successfully debunks the commonly held belief that traditional smallholder agriculturalists are
backward and unproductive, while emphasizing the values of biodiversity, food security,
sustainability, and community stability. Unfortunately, Oaxaca, like most of rural Mexico, has
experienced the expansion of large commercial operations according to Green Revolution
policies that have devastated traditional lifeways and accelerated poverty and out-migration.
The cost of progress is that people like Ramn Gonzlez join an ever-expanding pool of
powerless, exploited, and expendable farm workers in places such as the Culiacn Valley, move
to the slums of Mexico City, or migrate to the USA. Their earnings in the form of remittances
become the major source of income for the people left behind. By examining the relationship
between communities in Mexico and the polices and practices that are driving change in them,
The Death of Ramn Gonzlez also explains the causes of rural to urban migration,
international migration, and growing transnational ties.
Wright_s analysis is serious and sobering. Nevertheless, he identifies a variety of positive
alternatives that remind the reader that not all is hopeless. While Wright is certainly an
advocate of the smallholder, he does recognize that new adaptive strategies are necessary
owing to the changes already manifested in traditional Mexico. In reviewing the literature on
agroecology and farming systems he shows that it is possible to build on traditional
knowledge by integrating new technology that is socially and ecologically appropriate and
sustainable, and in doing so to improve life for the rural poor.
The Death of Ramn Gonzlez offers a great deal of information about Mexican history,
culture, and politics, but is also of interest to a readership with wider interests. Mexico was an
important center of plant domestication, and its genetic diversity in corn remains a resource
for humanity. Mexico is arguably the birthplace of the Green Revolution, and what has
happened there offers continuing lessons about its application in tropical and developing
country settings. The experience outlined in this work is instructive about the nature of
development internationally. Linkages to the United States are identified throughout. Indeed, as
a source of food, manufactured goods, and people, Mexico has an enormous impact on USA.
Wright asks tough questions about whether American consumers really care about workers in
Mexico, or are solely concerned with cheap goods and blemish-free winter vegetables.
Wright_s fieldwork was done in the 1980s, but this in no way detracts from the value of the
work. The issues have changed little, and it now has as added historical perspective. His new
afterword focuses on larger contemporary issuesa critique of NAFTA, Mexican and U.S.
politics, pesticide use, transgenic crops, and global efforts to find alternatives to chemical-
dependent agriculture. Owing to this focus, the updated material is not as closely related to the
life and death Ramn Gonzlez. However, I believe that the real value of this book remains in
the original ten chaptersin the excellent fieldwork, documentation of the issues, and integrated
analysis. The primary worth of the afterword is to reinforce the case that the original work
continues to be relevant, and it is.
The death of Ramn Gonzlez is a metaphor for the death of the traditional farming system
and community. The modern agricultural dilemma arises out of the tension found in almost
all modern societies. The highly localized adaptations needed for ecologically healthy
agriculture and healthy, stable rural communities are often in conflict with the apparent
requirements of rapidly industrializing nations and an expanding international economy (p.
245). Wright concludes that progress, and not just in agriculture, has come at the cost of local
communities and the environment. As the next agricultural revolution moves forward, that of
transgenic crops, one would be wise to study and learn the lessons of the Green Revolution.
Most of the issues, questions, and concerns are the same. The Death of Ramn Gonzlez is
recommended reading for anyone interested in understanding agriculture within the context
of contemporary global society.