Like citizens of underdeveloped countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, many Latin Americans tend to assume that dependence on agriculture keeps their countries poor, and that the fast, easy way to national wealth is forced-draft industrialization. One result is that agriculture remains, by and large, woefully inefficient. Countries in which more than half the labor force grows crops or raises livestock use scarce foreign exchange to pay for imported foodstuffs—and are still ill-fed.
A case in point: Colombia. Some 60% of all Colombian breadwinners earn their living in agriculture, yet...
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