Elmore, Bart

OUR SYNOPSIS: Bart Elmore illuminates the social and environmental impacts of corporations from the U.S. South by focusing on five companies: Coca-Cola, FedEx, Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, and Walmart. He roots his arguments in his notion of “country capitalism,” corporate growth fueled by “developing systems of servicing the rural countryside or smaller communities removed from major metropolitan centers.” He emphasizes connecting infrastructure to argue that “all of these firms were primarily interested in becoming conduits of capitalism.” Since the South “remained more rural than many other parts of the country well into the mid-twentieth century,” it suited this development strategy. His other core argument is “that southern firms’ emphasis on making money by swiftly channeling goods, people, and capital over vast geographic distances, often to more rural and remote corners of the world, led these firms toward an outsized ecological footprint on the whole globe.” (5-6) When Coca-Cola expanded its business to bottling around the turn of the twentieth century, this industry helped the company implement national and global distribution networks. After Delta Air Lines relocated to Atlanta in 1941, its growth, energy use, and related environmental degradation were all tremendous. Enter Walmart in the 1960s, a company that embraced “becoming the market in places where there was none.” (84) This rural market focus facilitated urban sprawl. Starting in the 1970s, FedEx bought into the profitability of global shipping infrastructure. By connecting the entire country to the entire world, the company accelerated globalization. Then Bank of America built the financial systems to streamline the networks of global capitalism wreaking havoc on the environment.