The balance between expenditures and receipts is here obviously the decisive element for the growth of society. Bukharin's interest in such problems must surely have influenced Bergmann's decision to develop a career as an agricultural economist. For many years he was attached to the Institute of Agricultural Policy and Market Research, University of Hohenheim. He began his academic career rather late in life and did not publish his first monograph until he was fifty. Heavy machines may compact the soil.
Irrigation can cause erosion, crusting and salination.
Some experts fear over-fertilisation, excessive utilisation of mineral fertilisers and pesticides, which might later harm the quality of underground water. Before he became an academic, Bergmann spent years in exile doing whatever work was available to allow him to write on behalf of socialism. In years spent in places as far afield as Palestine and Czechoslovakia, he was a farmer, miner and Hebrew teacher. His dedication to building a revivified left is impressive. As I was leaving the Brecht Forum, he mentioned to me that he had plans to work on a follow-up book which would examine Paul Levi, Jos Carlos Mari tegui and others.