In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

MARK EDELMAN From Costa Rican Pasture to North American Hamburger SINCE THE MID-1950S, THE CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES HAVE experienced a new export boom based on the production of beef for the United States market. This paper first discusses the changes in U.S. beef production and consumption patterns that lie behind the expansion of export-oriented ranching in Central America. It then describes for one Central American country -Costa Rica-the roles played by international lending institutions, the national state, and the organized cattle lobby in bringing about this integration into the world beef market. Finally, it discusses the effects of export beef production on domestic beef consumption, land use, and Costa Rica's current economic crisis. It is suggested that "decisions" about who eats what cannot be understood apart from the unequal power relations that exist between rich and poor nations and between social classes in the underdeveloped countries. The Changing Structure of the U.S. Beef Market The incorporation of the Central American countries into the world beef market represents part of a relatively recent trend in which a few advanced capitalist nations, beset by a secular rise in beef prices, have attempted to maintain domestic consumption levels by relying on the output of underdeveloped countries where production costs are considerably lower. The price of a steer in Central America is generally about 40 percent lower than that of a comparable U.S. steer (Roux 1975:363). In the 1970s the United States, with 6 percent of the world's population and 9 percent of its cattle, accounted for 28 percent of global beef consumption (Solis 1981:62). The United States also accounts for almost one-third of world beef imports and, with respect to the Central American beef-exporting nations, exercises true monopsony power (USDA 1976: 14). 541 v. The Political Economy and the Political Ecology of Contemporary Foodways Steers, of course, tend to have the finest meat, while cows sent to slaughter are usually quite tough from years of calving and are suitable primarily for industrial- or hamburger-quality meat. Traditionally in the United States, this industrial-grade meat was supplied largely by milk cows past the age of reproduction . In recent decades there has been a relative decline in the size of the dairy herd in relation to the beef cattle herd. Since the cows of the beef breeds are generally of greater longevity than dairy cows (Slutsky 1979: 107), and since the consumption of hamburger and industrial-grade beef has been increasing, wholesalers were forced to look abroad for new sources of supply. Production costs and beef prices in the United States have fluctuated in a 9to 12-year "cattle cycle" for approximately the last four decades. The size of the commercial cattle slaughter in the United States is closely tied to herd size, which is in tum related to the cost of cattle feed. The steer-com ratio-that is, the ratio of beef steer price to com price-is the key measure of profitability in raising grain-fed cattle. In general, there is an inverse relationship between steer-com ratio and herd size. A high steer-com ratio is indicative of aboveaverage profit opportunities and encourages ranchers to expand the herd by keeping more heifers for breeding purposes. Heifers usually calve at 27 to 33 months of age. These calves come to slaughter about 18 months later. It thus takes almost four years to produce a "finished" steer. The expansion phase of the cattle cycle is conditioned by this rate of increase and usually lasts six to eight years. At the end of the expansion phase, when the quantity of beef produced can only be marketed at lower prices, ranchers and feed-lot operators are breeding and raising animals at a loss. They begin to sell cows and heifers, thus bringing about a contraction in herd size, lower prices, and a decreased capacity for herd increase. Cattle are brought into feed-lots at an older age and fed for a shorter time to a lower finished weight. The contraction phase generally lasts two to six years. When the cattle inventory is reduced enough to create high prices, those farmers who have not gone out of business begin to rebuild their herds. Recently it has been demonstrated that the internationalization of the Latin American cattle complex has led to "the emergence of a world cattle cycle" (Sanderson 1982:14). There are several reasons why the U.S. cattle cycle has strong repercussions...

Share