A political ecology of beef in colonial Tanzania and the global periphery, 1864-1961

► Lemco's model of cattle industrialization relied on marginal savannas of the global periphery. ► Tanganyikan officials saw Lemco as a solution to an 'overstocking crisis' in the cattle economy. ► After World War II the Lemco model competed with a developmentalist vision of modern ranching. ► The failure of pastoral modernization in Tanzania owed much to Lemco's structural limitations.