ABSTRACT
During the 1980s, Central America's military and fiscal crises attracted the world's attention. The findings just mentioned, however, point to two other interrelated and mutually reinforcing emergencies that are potentially more threatening in the long term: an ecological crisis marked by widespread environmental degradation and a human crisis characterized by growing poverty and hunger. This chapter argues that both of these vital problems can be linked to the patterns of development that have been characteristic of Central America. It presents the linkages between international and national strategies aimed at expanding export-oriented agriculture and trends in southern Honduras in agricultural development, environmental deterioration, and food scarcity. The chapter shows how the overall pattern of development has generated problems of both food insecurity and environmental destruction. It deals with a discussion of how environmental and food security questions were incorporated into an analysis of the political economy of agricultural development in southern Honduras.
