Abstract

From 1919 through the early 1950s, agricultural scientists affiliated with the University of California and agricultural scientists setting up settlements in Mandatory Palestine traveled between California and Palestine on a series of research trips. Building on conversations in historical political ecology and critical political ecologies of settler colonialism and racial capitalism, this article sets out to answer: how was agricultural science part of the project of settler colonialism in both California and Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century? Through an analysis of archival materials – field notes, professional and personal correspondence, and scholarly and popular media publications by US and European Jewish Zionist scientists – I argue that these scientists naturalized and made universal racial hierarchies through transnational technoscientific collaboration. US and Zionist scientists engaged in exchange and debate in two topics: the proper physical organization of and location of farms, and; the concept of carrying capacity of the land of historic Palestine. In both, agricultural science was used as an objective reason to elevate Western ideologies of proper cultivation and capitalist yield. This justified the dispossession of Palestinians from their land because they were "poor stewards." This historical case study holds implications for contemporary issues around land and population by Zionists in Israel today, and related debates in global sustainable development at large.

Keywords: Palestine, agriculture, racial science, carrying capacity, California

How to Cite:

Kirk, G., (2024) “"A fairly good crop for white men:" The political ecology of agricultural science and settler colonialism between the US and Palestine”, Journal of Political Ecology 31(1), 888–908. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.6132