Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America PDF
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Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America Amid the growing calls for a turn towards sustainable agriculture, this book puts forth and discusses the concept of agrarian extractivism to help us identify and expose the predatory extractivist features of dominant agricultural development models. The concept goes beyond the more apparent features of monocultures and raw material exports to examine the inherent logic and underlying workings of a model based on the appropriation of an ever-growing range of commodified and non-commodified human and non-human nature in an extractivist fashion. Such a process erodes the autonomy of resource- dependent working people, dispossesses the rural poor, exhausts and expropriates nature, and concentrates value in a few hands as a result of the unquenchable drive for profit by big business. In many instances, such extractivist dynamics are subsidized and/or directly supported by the state, while also dependent on the unpaid, productive, and reproductive labour of women, children, and elders, exacerbating unequal class, gender, and generational relations. Rather than a one-size-fits-all definition of agrarian extractivism, this collection points to the diversity of extractivist features of corporate-led, external-input-dependent plantation agriculture across distinct socio-ecological formations in Latin America. This timely challenge to the destructive dominant models of agricultural development will interest scholars, activists, researchers, and students from across the fields of critical development studies, rural studies, environmental and sustainability studies, and Latin American studies, among others. Ben M. McKay is Assistant Professor of Development and Sustainability in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary in Canada. His research focuses on the political economy and ecology of agrarian change in Latin America, agrarian extractivism, and food sovereignty alternatives. He is the author of The Political Economy of Agrarian Extractivism: Lessons from Bolivia (2020) and co-editor of The Edward Elgar Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies (2021) and Rural Transformations and Agro-Food Systems (2018). Alberto Alonso-Fradejas is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Human Geography and Planning Department, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University. Alberto is also an Associate Researcher at the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam, a Fellow of the Guatemalan Institute of Agrarian and Rural Studies (IDEAR), and Reviews Section Co-Editor for the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS). Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete holds a double PhD in International Development Studies from Saint Mary’s University and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas. His research focuses on the dynamics of agrarian transformations and new peasant movements in Paraguay. His work has been published in scholarly journals such as Journal of Agrarian Change, Latin American Perspectives, and Estudios Críticos del Desarrollo. Routledge Critical Development Studies Series Editors Henry Veltmeyer is co-chair of the Critical Development Studies (CDS) network, Research Professor at Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico, and Professor Emeritus at Saint Mary’s University, Canada Paul Bowles is Professor of Economics and International Studies at UNBC, Canada Elisa van Wayenberge is Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University of London, UK The global crisis, coming at the end of three decades of uneven capitalist development and neoliberal globalization that have devastated the economies and societies of people across the world, especially in the developing societies of the global south, cries out for a more critical, proactive approach to the study of international development. The challenge of creating and disseminating such an approach, to provide the study of international development with a critical edge, is the project of a global network of activist development scholars concerned and engaged in using their research and writings to help effect transformative social change that might lead to a better world. This series will provide a forum and outlet for the publication of books in the broad interdisciplinary field of critical development studies – to generate new knowledge that can be used to promote transformative change and alternative development. The editors of the series welcome the submission of original manuscripts that focus on issues of concern to the growing worldwide community of activist scholars in this field. To submit proposals, please contact the Development Studies Editor, Helena Hurd ([email protected]). 9 Deconstructing Human Development From the Washington Consensus to the 2030 Agenda Juan Telleria 10 Revolutions in Learning and Education from India Pathways towards the Pluriverse Christoph Neusiedl 11 Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America Edited by Ben M. McKay, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, and Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Critical-Development-Studies/book-series/RCDS Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America Edited by Ben M. McKay, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, and Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Ben M. McKay, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, and Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Ben M. McKay, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, and Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: McKay, Ben M., editor. | Alonso Fradejas, Alberto, editor. | Ezquerro-Cañete, Arturo, editor. Title: Agrarian extractivism in Latin America / edited by Ben M. McKay, Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, and Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete. Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge critical development series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects: LCSH: Agriculture—Economic aspects—Latin America. | Agriculture—Social aspects—Latin America. | Agriculture and state— Latin America. Classification: LCC HD1790.5 .A47 2021 (print) | LCC HD1790.5 (ebook) | DDC 338.1098—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053873 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053874 ISBN: 978-0-367-42254-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-00607-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-82295-8 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of illustrations and figures vii List of tables viii Notes on contributors ix Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 BEN M. McKAY, ALBERTO ALONSO-FRADEJAS, AND ARTURO EZQUERRO-CAÑETE 1 The Biotechnological Agrarian Model in Argentina: fighting against capital within science 21 CARLA POTH 2 Extractive dynamics of agrarian change in Bolivia 45 BEN M. McKAY AND GONZALO COLQUE 3 Agrarian extractivism in the Brazilian Cerrado 64 SÉRGIO SAUER AND KARLA R.A. OLIVEIRA 4 Social reproduction, dispossession, and the gendered workings of agrarian extractivism in Colombia 85 DIANA OJEDA 5 Agrarian extractivism and sustainable development: the politics of pineapple expansion in Costa Rica 99 ANDRÉS LEÓN ARAYA vi Contents 6 Gender inclusion in the sugarcane production of agro- fuels in coastal Ecuador: illusionary promises of rural development within a new agrarian extractivism 117 NATALIA LANDÍVAR GARCÍA 7 Life purging agrarian extractivism in Guatemala: towards a renewable but unlivable future? 139 ALBERTO ALONSO-FRADEJAS 8 Extractive agave and tequila production in Jalisco, Mexico 165 DARCY TETREAULT, CINDY McCULLIGH, AND CARLOS LUCIO 9 Forestry extractivism in Uruguay 186 MARKUS KRÖGER AND MARIA EHRNSTRÖM-FUENTES Index 208 Illustrations and figures 1.1 Sociogram: educational, academic, and work trajectories 30 1.2 Percentage of GM seeds released in each phase 38 6.1 Sugarcane cultivated area in hectares (2002–2019) 122 6.2 Women using contaminated water sources to wash clothes in Hacienda La Indiana 132 7.1 Research sub-regions, departments, and municipalities in Guatemala 145 7.2 Interactive analysis of diverse productive relations around multiple forces of production in resource extractivism 146 8.1 Tequila production and exports and agave consumption, 1995–2019 172 8.2 Agave harvested and area planted in municipalities of the DO, 2003–2017 174 Tables 1.1 Shared conceptions that are crystallized in regulation 32 6.1 Membership in the associations of the Hacienda La Indiana 125 7.1 Diverse productive relations around multiple forces of production 146 8.1 Owners of main tequila brands 173 Contributors Alberto Alonso-Fradejas is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Human Geography and Planning Department, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University. Alberto is an Associate Researcher at the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam, a Fellow of the Guatemalan Institute of Agrarian and Rural Studies (IDEAR), and Reviews Section Co-Editor for the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5906-6608 Andrés León Araya has a PhD in Anthropology from the City University of New York (CUNY) and is currently the Chair of the Center of Political Research and Studies (Centro de Investigación y Estudios Políticos, CIEP) at the University of Costa Rica. His research interests concern the relation between the expan- sion of monoculture plantations and state formation in Central America. https:// orcid.org/0000-0002-1594-5184 Gonzalo Colque is a Bolivian researcher and Executive Director of Fundación TIERRA based in La Paz, Bolivia. He has an MA in Agrarian, Food, and Envi- ronmental Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, the Netherlands, and has been deeply involved with peasant organ- izations and Indigenous movements in Bolivia. Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes is Assistant Professor at Hanken School of Eco- nomics. Her research focuses on the political implications of corporate social responsibility in local struggles against forestry extractivism in South Amer- ica, and on grassroots organizations enacting socio-ecological change through regenerative projects in different parts of the world. She has also published articles on sustainability and the governance of ethicality in alternative food networks. Issues related to political ontology and the pluriverse are core themes that cut through all of her research. Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete holds a double PhD in International Development Stud- ies from Saint Mary’s University and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas. His research focuses on the dynamics of agrarian transformations and new peasant movements in Paraguay. His work has been published in scholarly journals such as Journal of Agrarian Change, Latin American Perspectives, and Estudios Críticos del Desarrollo. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4604-0270
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