Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between sugar pests, the production of scientific knowledge and the expansion of commercial agribusiness in the context of the imperial expansion of the United States in Cuba and Puerto Rico from the history of science, environmental and commodity histories.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between the sugarcane mosaic virus plague, the production of scientific knowledge, and the expansion of commercial agribusiness in the context of the imperial expansion of the United States in Cuba and Puerto Rico from the history of science, and environmental and commodity histories. In doing this I highlight the zones of negotiation between different circuits and socioeconomic actors at various levels (global, regional, local). The epidemic illuminates the study and exchange of solutions at various scales that traveled within diverse circuits of knowledge (scientists, sugar producers, etc.), and illustrates multiple connections (vertical, horizontal, transnational, among others). Likewise, I highlight biological agency in the developments of tropical agricultural science.