Van Ausdal, Shawn. 2009.

Shawn Van Ausdal. 2009^[1] . Pasture, profit, and power: An environmental history of cattle ranching in Colombia, 1850–1950. Geoforum Volume 40, Issue 5, September 2009, Pages 707–719 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167185

Abstract

This article examines the expansion of cattle ranching from 1850 to 1950 into lowland forests of Colombia. Although most attention to ranching as a source of deforestation in Latin America has focused on the second half of the 20th century, in Colombia it has a much longer history. The article also examines the role of introduced African grasses in the process of pasture development. While it discusses their ability to suppress secondary-forest regeneration, it underscores their contribution to productivity gains to help explain their wide diffusion. Lastly, the article suggests that paying greater attention to the costs and labor of pasture formation can serve as a springboard to reexamine a number of common stereotypes about ranching: that the logic of livestock was not about producing beef; that cattle were primarily a means to control territory; and that ranching ‘profits’ stemmed from extra-economic sources. Although there is some truth to these explanations, the dominance of cattle throughout the countryside cannot be explained without taking the economic and productive logic of ranching into account. This, in turn, should also help push us to better understand the nature of landed power and the dynamics of agrarian change in Colombia.

Keywords

Cattle ranching; Deforestation; African pasture grasses; Landed elites; Colombia; Latin America; Debt peonage

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Este artículo es muy pertinente al concepto apenas esbozado de UAF. No he leído el artículo, pero me parece interesante que contradiga lo que se ha pensado acerca del análisis de los sistemas de producción ganadera de la Depresión Momposina y sus altiplanos asociados. Esta es la investigación planteada desde hace unos años en Neotrópicos, para ser acometida inicialmente por Marcela Mazo. La idea sigue viva. Lcgarcia 01:36 18 ago 2013 (CEST)

Apostillas

1. ^  Department of History, Universidad de los Andes, Calle 18 No. 0-33E, Bogotá