A Socialist Concept of Agribusiness

A Socialist Concept of Agribusiness: Soviet Estonia and the Making of the Agro-Industrial Complex

by Donald Morard III, PhD Candidate, McGill University

Today’s modern agricultural system is commonly attributed to the Green Revolution and the rise of Western agribusiness during the second half of the twentieth century, with large multinational companies coordinating all aspects of food production from farms to supermarkets. Often excluded from this story are plans for agricultural reform developed by state-socialist governments, with the Soviet Agro-Industrial Complex of the 1970s and 1980s aiming to mimic the management methods of agribusiness while preserving the central role of state planning.

Drawing from records of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute, this presentation explores how Western agricultural experts and Soviet press commentators understood the Soviet Union as a part of the emerging globalized, industrial food economy. By highlighting the case of Estonia, a pioneer among Soviet republics of agro-industrial policy, this project also examines the entanglement of global, all-union, and regional factors on late socialist reform.