IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/entsoc/v16y2015i01p109-140_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Green Pastures of Plenty from Dry Desert Ground†: Nature, Labor, and the Growth and Structure of a California Grape Company

Author

Listed:
  • WINANT, GABRIEL

Abstract

This article examines the growth and change of a southern California table grape firm, the George F. Johnston Company. Combining business, labor, and environmental history, it traces the company’s expansion from a semi-arid region just east of Los Angeles to the fully arid deserts of the Coachella and Imperial Valleys of California. The Johnston Company moved south and east into this more hostile environment to produce grapes out of the traditional season, beating the competition to market. In the process, it produced a racially stratified workforce and contributed to an ecological catastrophe. The Johnston case suggests that agricultural production pits capitalists in a triangular struggle over the moment of the harvest with nature and labor. This struggle is intensified by competitive dynamics that drive firms to expand or shift the timing of the productive process.

Suggested Citation

  • Winant, Gabriel, 2015. "“Green Pastures of Plenty from Dry Desert Ground†: Nature, Labor, and the Growth and Structure of a California Grape Company," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 109-140, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:entsoc:v:16:y:2015:i:01:p:109-140_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1467222714000135/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:entsoc:v:16:y:2015:i:01:p:109-140_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/eso .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.