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Nature, Labor and Community in California’s Imperial Valley

Nature, Labor and Community in California’s Imperial Valley. Alan Rudy ISS 310: People and Environment Spring 2002 Thursday, January 9. Imperial Valley and Salton Sea. Landsat Hydrophotography. Farms and Farm Value, 1940-1972. 1939 Map. My Problem:.

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Nature, Labor and Community in California’s Imperial Valley

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  1. Nature, Labor and Community in California’s Imperial Valley Alan Rudy ISS 310: People and Environment Spring 2002 Thursday, January 9

  2. Imperial Valley and Salton Sea

  3. Landsat Hydrophotography

  4. Farms and Farm Value, 1940-1972

  5. 1939 Map

  6. My Problem: • I'm interested in the connections between environmental crises, labor struggles and rural development. • But, my research started with the 1991 Silver Leaf whitefly superpest outbreak. • What do I do? • Start with evolution of the whitefly and seek connections to labor processes and agricultural development patterns.

  7. The Whitefly: • Whitefly comes from intensive cultivation, and serial ripening with great crop diversity. • The Imperial Valley produces > 100 crops with a 365-day a year growing season. • Crops are planted so that one field is harvested one week, another the next, and another the next – there are almost always several ripe, succulent, or young crops for pests to attack. • As such, extremely high pesticide usage has been the rule ever since the 1950s.

  8. More Whitefly: • Whitefly superpest unlike other pests (more crop hosts, 5X repro rate). • Esp. bad for highly capitalized, very disciplined and intensive agricultural systems with • Massive landholdings, contract inputs-management-labor, Hoover Dam/All-American canal/intensive drainage system.

  9. Landholdings • Neither the 160-Acre nor the Residency Limitation associated with the Irrigation Act of 1901 has been enforced in the Valley since the completion of the Hoover Dam, and All-American Canal. • Massive units of production. • Not a single farmstead – everyone lives in cities, across the border or on the coast.

  10. Contracts – No Owner Operators • Management • Land Preparation • Chemical Inputs • Labor • Processing • Marketing

  11. Water Infrastructures • Irrigation – 1901 • Flood/New-Alamo “Rivers”/Salton Sea – 1904-1907 • Dam/Canal – 1929-1939 • Drainage – 1940s • Limitations • 1930s – against legal advice, unenforced • 1970s – threatened, Supreme Court decision, Congress rewrites Reclamation Law

  12. Labor History • Indigenous canal digging, land leveling • Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hindu • succession/exclusion • Mexican – exception to 20s immigration laws • Multiracial union drives, 1929-1934 • Violently suppressed • Bracero Program – 1941-1965 • UFW – 1968-1982

  13. Community History • Mexicali/Calexico • Holt/El Centro/Brawley • County/SPRR/IID Struggle • IID – Swing + Johnson = Hoover Dam • Dam/Canal: Saves ag, kills communities • Maquiladoras, NAFTA, Prisons “rejuvenate” IV cities • “Right to Farm” ordinance

  14. Environmental Problems • Supersaline Salton Sea • 5-10,000 migrating eared grebes die annually • The Sea is a key locale for migratory waterfowl • Supersaline Irrigation Water – Mexico? • Selenium saturated sediments • Industrial/Sewage from Mexicali • Massive/Devastating pest outbreaks • Very low air quality

  15. Conditions of Production I • James O’Connor (1989): Natural Causes • Sees three crisis tendencies. • Overproduction Crisis • Fiscal Crisis • Environmental Crises • Ecological • Personal • Communal

  16. Conditions of Production II • Overproduction crisis – too much stuff, too few markets – common to economic cycles. • Fiscal crisis – economic downturn: • business needs more public R&D, new efficient infrastructures, and to pay fewer taxes, BUT • people also need more support and protection and to pay lower taxes… • BUT THE STATE HAS FEWER RESOURCES • serve business  irk people? 1920s, 50s, 80s, 90s? • serve people  irk business? 1930s, 60s • serve both  deficit spending/debt? 1950s, 70s

  17. Conditions of Production III • Nature, people and communities are not (re)produced like commodities • Business often treats nature, workers and communities as if they are disposable or depreciable commodities. • Pollution, exhaustion, and intensive use degrade the health of n, p, & c. • Unhealthy n, p, & c are less productive and also a source of social movements

  18. Conditions of Production IV • Environmental, labor/gender/etc., and community-based social movements generally make demands on the state • The state, then, is always a key player in the relationship between nature and business, labor and business, and communities and business.

  19. People, Environment and Sustainability • Ecological conditions are connected to peoples’ health and community well-being – often through the state/politics. • Sustainability, then, must be about environmental justice as well as the health of ecological communities

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