Biological Globalization: The Other Grain Invasion

ICER Working Paper No. 9/2006

37 Pages Posted: 24 Sep 2006

See all articles by Alan L. Olmstead

Alan L. Olmstead

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics

Paul W. Rhode

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: May 2006

Abstract

Contemporary accounts of the history of globalization place the grain trade in a leading role. Narrowing price gaps for wheat in world markets serve as the key indicator of increasing market integration. And the chief example of an early policy backlash is the rising protectionism of European importers in response to the Great Grain Invasion of New World grain in the late nineteenth century. These accounts focus on the important role of falling transportation cost, but neglect other crucial biological innovations that allowed expanding the wheat cultivation in the new lands, what we call the other grain invasion. This paper documents that over the 1866-1930 the average distance of world wheat production from the core consumer markets doubled, as the wheat frontier moved on much harsher (colder and more arid) climates. Examining the detailed histories of major producers on the periphery, we show that this move involved, and indeed required extensive experimentation by farmers and crop scientists to find new suitable cultivars that could thrive in the new environments and survive the evolving pest and disease threats. Flows of germplasm and knowledge about breeding occurred not only from center to periphery, but also and importantly within the periphery and from the periphery to the center as an increasing integrated global community of crop scientists emerged over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Finally, we speculate about why in some regions pioneering plant breeders are heralded as national heroes whereas in others they are sadly under-appreciated.

Suggested Citation

Olmstead, Alan L. and Rhode, Paul W. and Rhode, Paul W., Biological Globalization: The Other Grain Invasion (May 2006). ICER Working Paper No. 9/2006, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=932056 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.932056

Alan L. Olmstead (Contact Author)

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

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Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States

Paul W. Rhode

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor ( email )

500 S. State Street

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor ( email )

500 S. State Street

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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