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Efficiency
Author(s) -
Gálvez Alyshia
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal for the anthropology of north america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2475-5389
DOI - 10.1002/nad.12096
Subject(s) - indigenous , yield (engineering) , politics , investment (military) , economics , term (time) , political economy , political science , law , ecology , materials science , physics , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , biology
The concept of efficiency, perhaps more than any other, provides an underlying logic to social, political, and economic formations in North America. But it is arguably the term's misuse, rather than its true definition as a ratio of effort and investment to yield, that drives the current neoliberal policy landscape under the US ‐Mexico‐Canada Agreement (formerly the North American Free Trade Agreement). This essay draws on the example of corn to show how other productive arrangements reflect alternative rural and indigenous measures of worth.