| I compare the history of agricultural education, scientific research, and adoption of technologies in the United States and Mexico. On American agriculture, I explore: (i) the early growth of agricultural education and research; (ii) American leadership in patenting, production, and export of technologies; (iii) the drink- and food-processing industries and their effect on farming; (iv) American farm exports and imports; and (v) the complementary nature of engineering, mechanical, chemical, and biological technologies.; On Mexican agriculture, I analyze the history of agricultural education, research, and technological application within the context of a third world country, as well as American influence on Mexican agricultural schools, research institutes, and production. I weave two different threads: the autonomous growth of Mexican institutions, although Mexicans saw American and European agricultural institutions as models; and the direct influence that American institutions, such as the USDA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and transnational corporations, had on education, research, and production in Mexico. I deal with the history of teaching and research institutions, such as the Escuela Nacional de Agricultura, Escuela Superior de Agricultura Antonio Narro, Monterrey Escuela de Agricultura y Ganadería, Comisión de Parasitología Agrícola, Instituto Biotécnico, Instituto de Investigaciones Agrícolas, Oficina de Estudios Especiales, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrícolas, and Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo.; By the middle of the twentieth century, the United States was the only country in the world able to export the industrial way of farming, characterized by the intensive use of technological means and inputs, its tight association with the food-processing industries and the supermarket sector. Mexico was the first country to partially adopt during the period of 1940–1970 the new technologies, most of which were imported from the United States or purchased to transnational corporation subsidiaries located within Mexico. I pay special attention to the adoption of hybrid maize and dwarf wheat seed in Mexico, and show that commercialization of this and other technologies benefited rather the affluent farmers than the majority of the peasants. |
