REGENERATION AND DEGENERATION OF THE PEASANTS 41
produced grains must be condemned as anti-social under °any circumstances when the country is obliged to import staple foods and even if grain is in excess of "effective demand" when many people cannot afford an adequate diet.
69 This is a typical case of selective technology transfers, which are characteristic of all such transfers into underdeveloped agricultures.
no To this must be added that some of the land devoted to pastures becomes unfit for cropping. The opinions of agronomists see^m to be divided on this issue; however, it seems certain that some soils can b6 damaged from continued grazing more readily than others. Any loss of agricultural resources is contrary to the long-run interests of underdeveloped countries and to their future production potential.
-l See in this context R F Walters, Cultivc Nomada en Latinoamerica, FAO, Forestry Development Paper No 17, Rome, 1971 (extracts quoted in La Lucha de closes en el campo, Fondo de Culturn, Lecturas, No 14, 1973, pp 317 ff)