Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overview of the trends in food production and agricultural trade. It analyzes the relationships between economic development, changing comparative advantage, and food trade. The book deals with the issue of international labor migration. It presents a more general analysis of international migration within the Pacific Basin. The book addresses the issues in the development and exchange of technological and research capacity. It discusses the development of agricultural research capacity from an Asian perspective. International migration affects agriculture through both a "brain drain" of skilled labor and the loss of unskilled workers. The book also analyzes the changing institutional nature of technology diffusion from a Latin American perspective. It examines the largest labor market in the Pacific Basin: the US-Mexican labor market.