Guatemala Civil War Analysis

A bloody civil war opening the floodgates of the globalization of foodways. There are many positions on how Guatemala’s foodways were changed including the alteration of dietary nutrition and the dramatic changes to imports and exports of the country. Some positions inquired upon the cultural significance of the replacement of traditional food crops like maize with nontraditional crops for exportation. The entrance of Guatemala into the global economy has also been argued to have introduced them to new competition, fluctuating food prices and new forms of employment. Looking deeper into the effects of globalized foodways in Guatemala, raises questions of who benefits and what has happened to traditional crops?
Effects on Guatemalan Diet The
The war needed to be funded and the opening of Guatemala to global markets increased profits (Isakson, 2014, p. 355). In order to make a profit the countries agriculture shifted to cash crops for exportation based on what other countries such as the U. S. wanted (Isakson, 2014, p. 361). These cash crops included winter vegetables, tropical fruits, snow peas, melons, African palm and cardigan (Isakson, 2014, p. 361). To increase output, Guatemala took part in the Green Revolution using new agricultural technology to make food production more efficient (Isakson, 2014, p. 355). The new technology included fertilizers, pesticides and new agricultural techniques (Isakson, 2014, p.
This dependency on global food markets creates an unstable sense of security (Isakson, 2014, p. 348). When the food market crashes Guatemalans take a huge hit because they are so invested in it (Replogle, 2004, p. 2057). When the production of wheat and yellow corn went down in the United States due to bad weather, tortilla and bread prices went up in Guatemala (Walter, 2011, p. 99). This made a huge impact on Guatemalans because they are so reliant on imports (Walter, 2011, p. 100). They were forced to change their diets because it was no longer feasible to eat those foods. Yellow corn is used for animal consumption so Guatemalan meat production also suffered from the United States production problems (Walter, 2011, p. 99). The price of the basic food basket in Guatemala becomes too much for many rural families due to their fluctuating prices on the international market (Replogle, 2004, p. 2057). This reliance not only affects the purchasing of food directly but also their own agricultural production. The fertilizer Guatemalans import to use on their farms to maintain the quality of products to export has increased by 200% due to global markets (Walter, 2011, p.