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This paper compares the agrarian development of two indigenous communities in the highlands of Ecuador who specialize in nontraditional agricultural exports (NTAE). It brings together the peasant theory with literature on the environmental impact of globalization.

Through a comparative ethnography, based on six months of participant observation and interviewers, I illustrate the differences in production processes and explain the divergent trajectories of agrarian modernization.

I found that NTAE impacted the two communities differently: one became more ecologically sustainable and the other became more environmentally exploitative. However, neither case fits squarely within the framework of modern/traditional or peasant/capitalist. Instead of traditional environmentalism and individualistic exploitation, we see the reverse: individualistic environmentalism and traditional exploitation. That is, ecological methods are paired with individualistic competition, and environmental exploitation takes place within a system of communal solidarity.

With buyer-driven organic certification standards, global integration does not always lead to ecological degradation. For quinoa growers, traditional production practices persist not as resistance to global capitalism but as a strategy to access high-value export markets. Broccoli farmers, although exploitative of local natural resources and their own health, do so within communal institutions that buffer against individualistic risk-taking.

This comparative case presents an alternative depiction of modernization as complex and nonlinear.

This study examines employment dynamics of youth in the central highlands of Guatemala. It is during late adolescence and early young adulthood that rural youth explore and settle into occupational structures that often define their economic lives and the region’s economic outlook. However, the occupational orientations of this group are poorly documented.

The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. A three wave longitudinal design with six-month intervals was implemented. Households were identified using random sampling based on household maps. Two individuals per household were interviewed, a female adult and a younger woman/man between 15 and 25 years old in 451 households. In-depth interviews also were conducted with 25 individuals.

Youth occupational choices were associated not only with their health, income, and standing in their household, but also their self-image, sense of independence, and control. Nonfarm jobs were found to be most attractive to youth, who identify them as more “modern” and urban jobs. The study documents shifts from farm to nonfarm jobs, gender dynamics, the impact education has on jobs for youth, and health correlates of employment and unemployment.

Most characterizations of employment patterns in rural areas of Guatemala focus on the “head of household,” while overlooking the diverse job activities of other members of the household. The study not only addresses a population that is often understudied but also provides a longitudinal perspective to understand job switching and youth ideas of a “good” and “better” job.

Developing new markets for small producers has been a major focus of research and development in many parts of the world. Too frequently, the ways in which existing production and market systems constrain producer possibilities has been ignored. This study examines how existing systems have affected coffee farmers in Costa Rica and Panama as they attempt to enter the elite coffee market, which promises higher prices for premium production. In the past 50 years, Costa Rica had created a system quite favorable to small producers in the world coffee market, while Panama had done little. Yet today, the Costa Rican system has proven to be a barrier to entering the highest levels of the coffee market, while the Panamanian system has produced coffees that are currently among the best in the world. The shifting ways in which production and marketing systems connect with world markets and elite taste suggest the necessity of greater sensitivity to how existing systems affect what farmers can and will decide to do.

What are the social and ecological roots of export diversification in the developing world? On the one hand, I attribute the growth of nontraditional, manufactured exports from the Dominican Republic to the traditional agro-export elite's use of free trade zones to offset the consequences of urban biased, import-substituting industrialization in the 1970s, and thereby portray diversification as an incremental response to government predation rather than a coherent product of government planning. On the other hand, I hold that the nature, timing, and location of the nontraditional export supply response have necessarily been circumscribed by preexisting social and ecological circumstances, and thereby underscore the structural impediments to similar diversification efforts elsewhere in the developing world. My findings are of both theoretical relevance and policy import, for they serve to underscore the limitations to the regnant neoliberal development orthodoxy as well as the available sociological alternatives.

Despite 2016 legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation and sale in California with the passage of Proposition 64, many cannabis businesses operate without licenses. Furthermore, federal regulations disincentivize financial institutions from banking and lending to licensed cannabis businesses. The authors explore the impact of legal cannabis business activity on California financial institutions, the barriers to banking faced by cannabis businesses, and the nontraditional sources of financing used by the industry.

The authors use a mixed methods approach. The authors utilize call data for banks and credit unions headquartered in California and state cannabis licensing data to estimate the impact of the extensive and intensive margins of licensed cannabis activity on key banking indicators using difference-and-difference and fixed effects regressions. The qualitative data come from interviews with industry stakeholders in northern California's “Emerald Triangle” and add important context.

The quantitative results show economically and statistically significant impacts of licensed cannabis activity on banking indicators, suggesting both direct and spillover effects from cannabis activity to the financial sector. However, cannabis businesses report substantial barriers to accessing basic financial services and credit, leading to nontraditional financing arrangements.

The results suggest opportunities for cannabis businesses and financial institutions if regulations are eased and important avenues for further study.

The authors contribute to the nascent literature on cannabis economics and the literature on banking regulation and nontraditional finance.

Many less developed countries depend on a few traditional commodities for their foreign exchange earnings. These exports are subject to the vagaries of the world commodity markets which have declined in the 1980s. To bolster their dwindling foreign sales, some emerging nations have sought to foster new, non‐traditional exports. We examine the experience of Jamaica in its identification and targeting of such products for export. The actions adopted by the public sector for increasing export‐led growth and the corollary reactions of the private sector are ancillary but key considerations because these, in turn, develop general strategies for exporting non‐traditional products.

The purpose of this paper is to describe some effects of the economic policies implemented by the Guatemalan government on rural communities.

A comparison of the trends in corn prices over time between Guatemala and the USA was used to determine which year the impact of economic openness policies began. Then, changes in the area harvested of corn and other agricultural products and diet composition and consumption patterns over this time period were used to assess effects on rural communities.

The trend in Guatemala's corn price and the trend in the US's corn price are similar in the period from 1988 to 2005. There has been a reduction of in the area of corn harvested and an increase in the area harvested of other agricultural products for 1980‐2005. Also, it appears that there has been a change in the food energy consumption, food proteins source and caloric intake Guatemalans.

Field interviews are needed to examine in detail the specific adaptations communities have had.

Economic opening policies can have an effect on cultural elements, such as corn production and the diet.

This paper suggests that the economic openness policies started to show their effects at the end of 1980 affecting agricultural production and the diet of Guatemalans.

To identify periods of severe stress, and potentially take action to avoid or dampen their negative effects, lenders and policymakers need accurate and reliable data on US farm debt supply and credit needs. The purpose of this paper is to assess the current availability of information on US farm debt as well as its accuracy.

A review of the farm debt information and survey methodology of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).

This manuscript examines several potential issues involving the debt and lender data within ARMS. First, the empirical results indicate that there is an informational break in ARMS beginning in 2000. Second, the paper presents evidence that the overall level of debt reported by USDA is not consistent with information reported by lenders for other regulatory sources. Finally, the paper proposes a modification of the debt question to improve the data collection.

The paper offers an external review of farm debt information in ARMS.