Industrialized agriculture brings change in Turkey

Doctoral candidate Yetkin Borlu's study of the social dynamics of corn production in his native Turkey has implications for farmers internationally. We've all heard versions of the story, and many of us have relatives or ancestors who were a part of it. Small farmers, the story goes, are being squeezed out of business by large-scale, "industrial agricultural" corporations. Forced to buy patented, more expensive but higher-yielding hybrid seeds and the fertilizer and pesticides they require from multinational conglomerates, farmers harvest larger crops but at the price of rising debt. It is sometimes portrayed as a David and Goliath morality play - with Goliath winning - but the reality is much more complicated. Yetkin Borlu, a Ph.D. candidate in Penn State's Department of Rural Sociology, came to the University to study the issue as it applies to his native Turkey.