The article shows the asset-related determinants and the impacts of the participation of small farmers in supermarkets versus traditional market channels in Guatemala. Compared to farmers selling only to the traditional market channels, farmers selling to supermarket channels are larger (but are in the upper tier of the "small farmer" category), have more capital, and are much more specialized in commercial horticulture in general and in tomatoes in particular. While they have higher yields, they also have higher input use, including use of chemicals. In fact, they severely overuse pesticides and fungicides. Moreover, these greater input expenditures mean that their profit rates are roughly similar to those of farmers in the traditional market channel. Supermarket-channel farmers prefer the more demanding wholesale-supermarket channel because it offers lower risks and lower transaction costs to market, a variety of quality grades of tomatoes, all year long. In turn, the supermarkets, who do not buy direct but rather source from a few specialized-dedicated wholesalers, rely on this year-round supply, lower transaction costs, and consistency of quality. Copyright 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

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Global economic change and the discourses, models and practice of international sustainable development are major forces of ecological construction and restructuring. The paper illustrates how the social and ecological co-construction of forests in the Zambrana-Chacuey region in the Dominican Republic has material consequences for distinct groups of people and for other species in rural landscapes. The introduction of the Acacia mangium - a fast growing tree - as a timber cash crop for smallholder farmers in the region between 1984 and 1994 had major social, economic and ecological consequences. A rural federation collaborated with ENDA-Caribe, an international non-government organization, in a ten-year social forestry experiment to develop and promote economically and environmentally viable timber cash cropping systems for smallholder farmers. The experience of the federation members provides a window on the workings of gender, class and popular organization in the making of forest ecologies, and demonstrates the influence of transnational sustainable development models and organizations in the social and biological transformation of rural life. The encounter between the complex social and ecological context with an apparently simple project yields insights into the social, political and material construction, destruction and transformation of biotic assemblages in forests, fields, pastures and gardens in this forest/farm matrix. The research findings also illuminate the distinct effects of the resulting restructured ecologies on the diverse interest groups and plant communities within the regional agroforest.