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The antidote to cultural delusions!, October 24, 2002
Reviewer: Andrew Apel from Iowa, USA
Little more than a year after he published the opus Agriculture and Modern Technology: a Defense,* Thomas R. DeGregori has returned with another work of similar scope and perhaps even greater depth: The Environment, Our Natural Resources, and Modern Technology.** The book examines in detail many preconceptions and cultural myths about the environment, natural resources and technology, and shows that many are so badly distorted that they contribute to the commission of countless wrongs.
DeGregori's deft handling of these preconceptions and cultural myths invites a comparison to Dawkins' work with memes, or Campbell's syncretistic work with folklore, but as an economist of strikingly pragmatic bent, DeGregori prefers to deal with historical fact.
Those who cherish any illusions about the environment, natural resources or technology will find this a painful book to read. In chapter 1, we learn that "green consumerism" is still consumerism, barely green, and sometimes outright dangerous. In chapter 2, we learn how wildlife conservation efforts in Africa have destroyed cultures, forcing natives from their lands and depriving them of traditional foods. These natives are then denied access to modern technologies, with a view to ensure that they somehow remain "authentic" after such irreversible intrusions, enduring an enforced primitivism at the hands of their conquerors.
The theme repeats itself in chapter 5, where the notion of the American Indian as the "original ecologist" is exposed as the typical aftermath of subjugation. Primitive peoples in their wild, "natural" state (notions of what is "natural" are scathingly debunked as well) are viewed as savages, akin to animals and therefore not landowners, justifying their subjugation and the theft of their land. Once subjugated, nostalgia usurps memory and they are viewed as having lived "sustainably" in a pristine pre-technological utopia and an elaborate parody of their past is concocted to mesh with other mythical views we wish to entertain in the present. If these peoples rebel by refusing to act as expected, they are once again referred to as savages and often treated accordingly.
Much of the book deals with skewed notions of what is "natural," and they are mainly exposed in chapter 6. There, we learn that life "in harmony with the environment" for most of human history has had little in common with its idyllic portrayals, being instead nasty, brutish and short. As it turns out, the only thing able to protect us from the uncaring ravages of nature is, and always has been, technology.
"Here [in this book] the focus is on the consumption practices that reflect the phobias and beliefs that deny and/or reject the technological and scientific transformations that have given us longer, healthier lives," DeGregori states in his introduction. The book achieves this ambition, and a good deal more.
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* Iowa State University Press, Ames, 2001. 268 pp., [money]. Reviewed in AgBiotech Reporter, July 2001.
** Iowa State Press, Ames, 2002. 224 pp., [money]

An Old-Fashion Institutionalist's Plea for Progress, October 22, 2002
Reviewer: pierre desrochers from Montreal, QC Canada
This is a book that will challenge much conventional wisdom about the impact of modern technology on our environment. No matter how much you think you know about the topic, you will learn something new by reading it.

The author, an economist of the old-fashion institutionalist school (unlike the current institutionalist crowd, he believes in material progress) begins the book with a simple question: If modern science and technology are killing us, why are we so healthy and living so long? In short, his answer is that human beings have evolved into problem-solving (i.e. technological) creatures, and that no one should deny that this is a good thing in light of the available historical record.

The topics discussed in the book go much beyond what its title suggests and range from the living conditions of early Pacific Islanders to the Nazis' love of all things natural - with the exception, of course, of other human beings who didn't fit their idea of the master race. Indeed, the book is as much a study of the cultural divide between technological optimists and pessimists as it is a study of the impact of technology on humans and the environment.

One warning, though. The author is an academic and writes like one. The titles listed in his 45 page bibliography are thus methodically referenced in the main text in a way that will probably distract some readers unfamiliar with this writing style. In the end, though, the book is well worth the effort.
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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/081380342X/qid=1041005419/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/103-7802935-9095012?v=glance&s=books

Agriculture and Modern Technology: A Defense
by Thomas R. Degregori

Hardcover: 280 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.82 x 9.28 x 6.11 Publisher: Iowa State University Press; ISBN: 081380342X; (June 1, 2001)

Editorial Reviews
From Book News, Inc.
Not common sense, claims DeGregori (economics, U. of Houston) but merely common conventional wisdom maligns advances such as DDT and other pesticides as damaging to the environment and the quality of life. He offers documentation that the use of such chemicals has actually increased life span.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR

Book Info
A thought-provoking take on the technologies used in agriculture today, giving a brief overview of their evolution. Debunks common beliefs about the harmful effects of certain technologies such as pesticides and chemicals, by demonstrating the dramatic effects they have had on the quality of human life. DLC: Technology--Social aspects.

Customer Reviews

Great presentation of agriculture's past and future., October 23, 2002

Reviewer: J. Bishop Grewell from New Haven, CT United States
DeGregori defends the importance technology has played in feeding the world and offers insights into where it will push forward to feed the 2.5 to 3 billion people left to arrive over the next half-century. His accounts of the technology, and the ideologies both opposing and supporting the technology, keep the book entertaining while his use of numbers gives the book an expansive scope. A definite read for any scholar or interested layman of agriculture, technological progress, or both.

(This email is part of news packets of emails sent to CPTM Fellows and to assorted friends who have asked to be added to the mailing list. Neither I nor CPTM necessarily agree or disagree with the content of what is sent. Those who are interested in my views, may click on below to my homepage for recent more popular articles that I have published, reading lists for my development courses and hyperlinks to useful websites. TRD)