Raising cane in the glades: Regional development and agroenvironmental conflict in south Florida

The dissertation focuses on the development of the sugar industry in a portion of the historic Florida Everglades. The geographical focus is the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). The theoretical concern was to develop an approach to understanding processes of regional development that encompassed both the geographic dialectic of place, that is, the national, international, and inter-regional relations that shape and are shaped by processes in particular places, and the interior geography of place, that is, the built and non-built environment expressive of and constitutive of social, ecological relations. The research demonstrates that there was a discursive construction of place and a discourse of commodity boosterism that predated the material construction of the Florida sugar industry. These interrelated discourses---of commodity and of place---reveal the way in which the Everglades region---a twentieth century frontier---was articulated in processes of uneven regional development. Since the 1980s efforts to restore the Everglades ecosystem have focused on the EAA as the headwaters of the historic River of Grass. This restoration effort has generated resistance from the sugar industry and residents of the EAA.; Fieldwork for the dissertation took place in the EAA from 1995 through 1996. 1 conducted extensive open-ended interviews with farmers, sugar industry representatives, and rural women activists in the EAA, and with professionals involved in the Everglades restoration process and a migrant worker advocate. In addition, I conducted a detailed analysis of primary historical documents, including sugar industry reports and publications, government documents, and United States Congressional records.; A dynamic and interactive political process has begun to alter several aspects of the agroindustry and the agricultural community's role in relation to the environment. First, agronomic research on sugarcane is taking an agro-ecological approach to the issue of restoration. Second, the largest sugar company in Florida has initiated innovative green marketing strategies and new lines of organic products. Finally, the agricultural community is beginning to fund ecological research that is not directly related to sugarcane production.