Presentation short abstract

This study examines how development aid promotes avocado farming in Lebanon, advancing a standardized “copy-paste agriculture,” a heavily commercialized and extractivist agrarian model, while on paper promoting environmental and social equity, revealing contradictions in mainstream development.

Presentation long abstract

This talk examines how development interventions are reshaping Lebanese agriculture through the case of avocado cultivation. Lebanon’s agricultural sector operates under overlapping political and economic crises, marked by capitalist penetration, regional dynamics, and chronic neglect, conditions that make development aid a major transformative force.

Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and dozens of interviews with farmers, NGO staff, consultants, and civil society actors, I explore how the promotion of avocado farming by development actors influences agrarian practices and the broader political ecology of Lebanese agriculture.

I argue that these interventions advance a standardized, industrialized mode of production I term “copy-paste agriculture.” This model spreads avocado cultivation widely but disregards environmental consequences and deepens inequities in resource allocation. By applying political ecology and post-development theory, the talk analyzes how power relations, market forces, and environmental concerns intersect in these transformations, revealing contradictions and failures embedded in mainstream development aid.

Rather than focusing narrowly on the avocado crop itself, I critique the development logic sustaining this model, one that prioritizes commercial viability over ecological and social sustainability. Avocado cultivation thus becomes a lens for understanding how historical trajectories, market imperatives, and power dynamics converge in Lebanon’s agricultural sector. This research highlights the overlooked role of agriculture in development debates and calls attention to the systemic issues underlying aid-driven interventions, challenging assumptions about their capacity to deliver equitable and sustainable outcomes.