STRAWBERRY IMPERIALISM 111 cals in question, Asodrin and Novacron, had ironically enough been pushed heavily to Mexican growers by the MNGs in the pesticides industry. This episode brouglit home sharply to the Mexicans their economic vulnerability in the face of MNG domination. The 'final straw9 in the strawberry game came with an important meeting of major brokers in Guanajuato in June 1975. This meeting, attended almost exclusively by US brokers from the side of the industry, was also attended by officials from various Mexican governmental agencies. The meeting made a number of 'recommendations'—decrees would probably be a more accurate term—concerning the strawberry industry, some of which are of far reaching significance. For instance, one recommendation seeks to give an official seal of approval to the long standing practice of growing only seed varieties from the US; another demands that fumigants, insecticides, fertilizers and equipments be allowed into Mexico free of import duty. A third formalizes price fixing by U S brokers. What we get, then, is a classic picture of dependent capitalist agriculture, which provides substantial profits to foreign investors, but does not promote expanded reproduction and rapid development of productive forces. The sector is characterized by foreign capital's primary reliance on absolute surplus value extraction, leading to chaotic and wasteful use of the two primary resources, land and labour. Feder recognizes that "unless foreign capital and technology is actually withdrawn . . . the basic conditions and consequences of dependency are not likely to be altered" (p 143). Technically., alternatives to the present set-up can be proposed that could improve matters. For instance, a new export-oriented strawberry industry could be started elsewhere in Mexico, free of any connections with US capital, directly under the Mexican government, and subjected to careful planning. In this new zone, a diversified cropping pattern, which would ensure year round utilization of processing and storage facilities, could be adopted. Research can be carried out to determine the varieties best suited to the ecology of the region. The industry could be decentralized into a number of production cooperatives suitably assisted by a new government agency created for this purpose. Many other such measures can also be thought of. But technical possibilities are one thing, while political feasibility is quite another. The latter is of course decisive. As an expose of MNCs operating in LDGs, Feder's book is particularly useful because it focuses on what Feder describes as