<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size: 17pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "> MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History</span></font></font></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><b><i><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "> </span></font></font></o:p></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: -9pt; text-align: center; "><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Sterling Evans</span></font></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: -9pt; text-align: center; "><b><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Professor of History, University of Oklahoma </span></font></span></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; line-height: 18px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; "><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; color: rgb(171, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b><i>“Bound in Twine: Changes in Technology, Agriculture, and Environment from a Commodities Web Perspective”</i></b></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -9pt; text-align: justify; "><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">This presentation will address the henequen and sisal fiber trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Farmers in the United States and Canada depended on fibers grown in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico for harvesting grain crops with binders—an implement used until the advent of combine harvesters. Thus, a proto-NAFTA trade pattern evolved, with industrial, diplomatic, economic, political, labor, and environmental effects. The story reflects a commodities web model, which includes geo-political, transnational, and globalization analyses.</span></font></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 0.25in; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: rgb(171, 0, 0); "><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "> </span></font></font></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 0.25in; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: rgb(171, 0, 0); "><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Friday, November 6, 2009</span></font></font></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: rgb(171, 0, 0); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">2:30 to 4:30 pm</span></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><o:p></o:p></span></font></font></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: rgb(171, 0, 0); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Building E51 Room 095</span></font></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><o:p></o:p></span></font></font></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: rgb(171, 0, 0); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge</span></font></font></span></b><b><span style="color: maroon; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><o:p></o:p></span></font></font></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><b><span style="color: navy; "><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "> </span></font></font></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. For more information or to be put on the mailing list, please contact Margo Collett at </span></font></font><a href="mailto:mcollet@mit.edu"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">mcollett@mit.edu</span></font></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">.</span></font></font></p></body></html>