Latin American Perspectives

This article examines agroecology from a political economy perspective and opens a line for an interdisciplinary approach between economics and ecology. To this end, the logic of capital in capitalist production and in peasant agriculture is analyzed along with its relationship to nature and the land. In this vein, based on the concept of the thing-process duality in capital, an attempt is made to relate the logic of capital to the economic and ecological rationality present in capitalist and peasant agriculture. Using a concrete example, it is shown how ecological rationality, over and above capital, centralizes and corrects productive processes. From this perspective - the workings of its antagonist —agribusiness—is explored, presenting concepts that support the contention that an agroecological movement makes sense in current times.

El artículo examina a la agroecología desde la economía política y abre una línea de aproximación interdisciplinaria entre economía y ecología. Para ello se analiza la lógica del capital en la producción capitalista como también en la agricultura campesina y su relación con la naturaleza y la tierra. En esta línea, a partir del concepto de dualidad cosa-proceso del capital, se intenta relacionar la lógica del capital con la racionalidad económica y ecológica presente en la agricultura capitalista y campesina. A partir de un ejemplo concreto se muestra como la racionalidad ecológica, por sobre el capital, centraliza y disciplina los procesos productivos. Desde esta perspectiva se indaga sobre el funcionamiento de su antagonismo –el agronegocio-, presentando conceptos que permiten argumentar sobre el porqué tiene sentido un movimiento agroecológico en estos tiempos actuales.

Territorial disputes have intensified in Latin America due to the advance of neo-extractivism, while agrarian socio-territorial movements have created strategies of resistance and reinvention of their territorialities. In dialogue with political ecology perspectives, we seek to understand the dynamics of these movements in Argentina and Brazil. We analyzed the information systematized in the DataLuta Network database on the actions and reactions of socio-territorial movements based on published news reports in 2021. We noted that, even with different political contexts, the socio-territorial movements of Argentina and Brazil have included environmental issues in their agendas, demonstrated by their commitment to the fight against pesticides, agro-industry, and mining, and in defense of agroecology and the production of healthy food.

La disputa territorial se ha intensificado en América Latina por el avance del neoextractivismo, mientras que los movimientos socioterritoriales agrarios han creado estrategias de resistencia y reinvención de sus territorialidades. Dialogando con las perspectivas de la ecología política, buscamos comprender la dinámica de estos movimientos en Argentina y Brasil. Analizamos la información sistematizada en la base de datos de la Red DataLuta sobre las acciones y reacciones de los movimientos socioterritoriales a partir de las noticias publicadas en 2021. Notamos que, aún con diferentes contextos políticos, los movimientos socioterritoriales de Argentina y Brasil han incluido la cuestión ambiental en sus agendas, que se manifiesta en su compromiso con la lucha contra los plaguicidas, la agroindustria y la minería, en la defensa de la agroecología y la producción de alimentos saludables.

In this study, we employ a critical political economy framework for an empirical analysis of environmental withdrawals from agricultural production in Latin America. Namely, we focus on the role of export-orientation and trade direction of food as drivers of cropland footprint expansion in (semi-)periphery countries. Following the literature on the treadmill of production, ecological unequal exchange, and extractivism, we reason that (semi-)peripheries are structured to produce agricultural primary goods that rely on expansionary cropland dynamics. To test this claim, we utilize a panel study of fourteen countries in Latin America from 1970 to 2016. We collected data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Global Footprints Network. Results from the study show that export-orientation and trade direction have a positive relationship with the dependent variable, cropland footprint. The results confirm the basic model presented by critical political economy, that (semi-)peripheries are structured toward increasing environmental withdrawals as a part of their agricultural production.

Este estudio emplea un marco crítico de economía política para realizar un análisis empírico de las formas de extracción de recursos naturales en la producción agrícola de América Latina. Nos centramos en el papel propulsor que juegan la orientación hacia la exportación y la dirección comercial de los alimentos en la expansión y huella ecológica de las tierras de cultivo en países (semi)periféricos.

Basándonos en la literatura que analiza el espiral de la producción, el intercambio ecológico desigual y el extractivismo, sugerimos que las (semi)periferias han sido estructuradas para producir bienes agrícolas primarios que dependen de la dinámica expansiva de las tierras de cultivo. Para probar esta afirmación, utilizamos un estudio de panel de catorce países de América Latina desde 1970 hasta 2016.

Recopilamos datos del Banco Mundial, el Fondo Monetario Internacional y la Red Global de la Huella Ecológica. Los resultados del estudio muestran que la orientación hacia la exportación y la dirección del comercio tienen una relación positiva con la variable dependiente, la huella ecológica que dejan las tierras de cultivo. Los resultados también confirman la existencia del modelo básico sugerido por la economía política crítica, según el cual la estructura de las (semi)periferias se encuentra dirigida hacia el aumento de la extracción ambiental como parte de su producción agrícola.

In the face of the devastating implementation of corporative agri-food systems, processes of re-territorialization driven by agroecology, such as peasant resistance, become particularly relevant. In this article, we examine the history of the organization La Alianza (The Alliance) in Lara, Venezuela from 1975 to 2020, as narrated by its members, and using the methodology of the systematization of experiences. Based on the analytical categories of agroecology, territory and intersubjectivities, we reconstruct trajectories and organization, identifying harmonious moments which as in the case of a symphony orchestra are triggers for social processes that have promoted the constitution of specific territories. We conclude by showing the possibility of an alternative existence to hegemonic structures, constructed by collective, organized, and conscious subjects that are the driving force behind territories.

Frente a la devastadora implementación de los sistemas agroalimentarios corporativos, los procesos de reterritorialización impulsados por la agroecología como, por ejemplo, la resistencia campesina, cobran especial relevancia. Este artículo analiza la historia de la organización La Alianza en Lara, Venezuela, desde 1975 hasta 2020, narrada por sus miembros y utilizando la metodología de la sistematización de experiencias. Reconstruimos trayectorias y el proceso de organización a partir de categorías analíticas pertenecientes a la agroecología, el territorio y las intersubjetividades, identificando momentos de armonía que, al igual que en el caso de una orquesta sinfónica, han sido detonantes de procesos sociales a favor de la constitución de territorios específicos. Concluimos mostrando la posibilidad de una existencia alternativa a las estructuras hegemónicas—una alternativa construida por sujetos colectivos, organizados y conscientes capaces de fungir como la fuerza motriz del territorio.

Agroecology promotes the formation of networks based on principles of closeness, trust, and collective action among participating actors and with external institutions and agencies. This institutionalized vertical power is based on hierarchical relationships, which impact access to resources, policy influence, and the ability to navigate bureaucratic systems. This qualitative case study aims to investigate the intersection between power relations and linking social capital to comprehend the challenges actors in agroecological supply chains face in accessing external resources and operating under the current legal framework governing food supply chains in Colombia. We present the case of agroecological networks in Eastern Antioquia to uncover the impact of their relationships on existing power dynamics within networks and associated institutions. Our findings suggest that social capital does not consistently facilitate the enhancement of associativity within agroecological chains. Moreover, it can function as a mechanism of oppression and promote the formation of exclusive and exclusionary groups.

La agroecología promueve la formación de redes basadas en principios de cercanía, confianza y acción colectiva entre los actores participantes, así como con instituciones y agencias externas. Este poder vertical institucionalizado se basa en relaciones jerárquicas que afectan el acceso a los recursos al igual que la influencia que puedan tener las políticas y la capacidad de navegar por entramados burocráticos. Este estudio de caso de índole cualitativa tiene como propósito investigar la intersección entre las relaciones de poder y la vinculación del capital social para comprender los desafíos que enfrentan los actores de las cadenas de suministro agroecológicas que buscan acceder a recursos externos y operar bajo el marco legal que actualmente rige las cadenas de suministro alimentario en Colombia. Presentamos el caso de las redes agroecológicas en el Oriente antioqueño para estudiar el impacto de sus relaciones en las dinámicas de poder ya existentes dentro de las redes e instituciones asociadas. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que el capital social no facilita la mejoría de la asociatividad dentro de las cadenas agroecológicas de manera consistente. Además, puede fungir como un mecanismo de opresión y promover la formación de grupos exclusivos y excluyentes.

The emergence in Bolivia in 1979 of the major peasant union confederation, the Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB) was integral to the development of an Indigenous politics of the environment in late twentieth-century Bolivia. While the existing literature widely documents the CSUTCB’s focus on class and ethnicity, this paper addresses the organization’s ecological politics. The paper argues that the natural world became the nexus of interactions between the local and the global in Bolivian peasant politics in the late twentieth century. The CSUTCB’s environmental discourse reflected a critique of modernity and the nation-state and exemplifies a turn towards the “indigenization” of debates over resource nationalism.

In Bolivia, the Morales administration promoted agricultural projects in Guarani communities with the purpose of enhancing climate resilience and strengthening the communities’ production capacities and systems. Though aligned with the government’s broader goal of decolonizing Indigenous realities, this objective proved questionable in the light of the government’s neoextractivist development model. Scholars have shown that the enhancement of climate resilience in Bolivia faces significant difficulties due to socio-structural barriers. A study of one local project based on ethnographic fieldwork between 2015 and 2016 in a Guarani community reveals that the limits of the decolonial horizon of radical pluridiversity in the MAS political project are key to understanding some of those difficulties. Rooted in the One World World paradigm (the dominant narrative of reality), the project reenacted a socio-ecological order that constrained Indigenous ways of life and agriculture and, therefore, the foundations on which Guaraní climate resilience has historically rested.

En Bolivia, el gobierno de Morales promovió proyectos agrícolas en comunidades guaraníes con el propósito de mejorar la resiliencia climática y fortalecer las capacidades y sistemas de producción de las comunidades, lo que estaba alineado con el objetivo más amplio del gobierno de descolonizar las realidades indígenas. Sin embargo, la descolonización y emancipación de los proyectos de vida indígena han sido cuestionadas a la luz del modelo de desarrollo neoextractivista del gobierno. Se ha demostrado que la mejora de la resiliencia climática enfrenta dificultades significativas debido a barreras socio-estructurales. El estudio de un proyecto local basado en el trabajo de campo etnográfico realizado entre 2015 y 2016 en una comunidad guaraní revela que los límites del horizonte decolonial de la pluridiversidad radical, en el proyecto político del MAS son clave para entender algunas de esas dificultades. Enraizado en el paradigma del Mundo Único (narrative dominante sobre la realidad), el proyecto recreó un orden socio-ecológico que limita las formas de vida y las agriculturas indígenas y, por lo tanto, los cimientos sobre los que históricamente se ha basado su resiliencia climática.

Water is a key challenge when it comes to the Latin American agrarian issue, and its lack threatens rural living. The Chilean case is emblematic of this issue, given the implications of neoliberalism and its consequences on environmental injustice. Social movements are now adding the issue of water to their historical demands for land and territory. This paper addresses what features the water struggle has acquired among social movements in Chile by undertaking a critical, geohistorical reading of ongoing social processes. Our conclusions indicate that the agrarian territories are at a crossroads that demands mobilization or risks initiating a process of rural depopulation.

Studies on the agrarian question in Latin America have dealt with the role of capital in the area of agriculture and forestry while paying scant attention to its role in other areas, such as mining. Research on mining extractivism, for its part, has privileged recent socio-environmental conflicts without delving into the configurations of social classes and labor relations as it relates to agriculture. This article integrates these topics, analyzing the connections between copper extractivism, the commodification of the yareta plant, and indigenous peasant labor. We studied the medium-upper basin of the Loa River, in northern Chile, where one of the most important copper mines in the world (Chuquicamata) has been operating since 1915. Using ethnography and bibliographic analysis, we provide an account of how the expansion of extractivism requires a mixture of properly capitalist labor relations mixed with customary Andean practices. The latter are subsumed by capital and have played a key structural role during certain periods.

This research paper investigates the confrontation faced by the Gamela indigenous community, located in the Cerrado biome, in the southern region Piauí State in Norteastern Brazil, between agrarian issues and agribusiness. The territory in this area is considered to be the country’s last agricultural frontier. Self-recognition and self-organization of the Gamela people in their struggle for the demarcation of Indigenous territory, and gaining titles to the land, are key to overcoming the invisibility of Indigenous people in Piauí that has been imposed by historiography and official policies. The article highlights the existence of maneuvering done by agribusiness, with the participation of the state, to harm the rights of Indigenous peoples and nature.

Este trabalho de pesquisa examina o confronto enfrentado pela comunidade indígena Gamela, localizada no bioma do Cerrado, região sul do estado do Piauí, no Nordeste do Brasil, entre as questões agrárias e o agronegócio. O território desta área é considerado a última fronteira agrícola do país. O autorreconhecimento e a auto-organização do povo Gamela em sua luta pela demarcação do território indígena e pela conquista de títulos de terra são fundamentais para superar a invisibilidade dos povos indígenas no Piauí que tem sido imposta pela historiografia e pelas políticas oficiais. O artigo destaca a existência de manobras do agronegócio, com a participação do Estado, para prejudicar os direitos dos povos indígenas e da natureza.

In the last thirty years, Cuba and its capital Havana have become homes to one of the most vibrant urban agricultural movements in the world. This article argues that urban agriculture (UA) became the epitome of a broader movement of “agricultural revolution” that followed the collapse of the previous, capital intensive, monocultural agro-export model. It contends that this transformation revolved around three pillars – land redistribution, agricultural diversification, and agroecology – that account for a transition from food security to food sovereignty. It also presents the results of interviews conducted in Havana with urban farmers to assess the impact that UA has on their family’s diet and food security. The research demonstrates that UA guarantees a heightened feeling of independence to urban farmers and has a tremendous impact on their food security and diversity, most notably through autoconsumption. It also shows that community needs, use value, and the decommodification of food and land are the driving principles of UA in Cuba, which is in line with the food sovereignty model.

The expansion and intensification seen in the production of açaí, a fruit that typically grows in the Amazon, can have undesirable and serious socio-environmental consequences. Based on the premise that financialization in the agrifood sector accelerates processes that destroy the environment, an investigation is carried out into the claim that the supply chain regarding açaí is in the process of being financialized. Due to the absence of literature concerning this subject, this article serves as an exploratory case study with a theoretical base. As a result, primary information was collected as much from field visits as from official sources. These field visits produced semi-structured interviews (both in-person and virtual) and informal conversations with some of the actors involved in the açaí production chain. This article argues that the financialization of açaí is still in its early stages. This is primarily due to the involvement of large, financialized corporations, state support for expanding production, and the development of new products and agro-industrial technology.

A ampliação e a intensificação da produção de açaí, um fruto típico da Amazônia, tem gerado consequências socioambientais indesejáveis. Partindo do pressuposto de que a financeirização agroalimentar acelera processos de destruição ecológica, buscamos investigar se a cadeia do açaí está financeirizada. Devido à ausência de literatura a respeito deste tema, realizamos um estudo de caso exploratório e teoricamente orientado. Coletamos informações primárias tanto em fontes oficiais quanto em visitas de campo, por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas (presenciais e virtuais) e de diálogos informais com alguns dos atores da cadeia produtiva do açaí. Concluímos que a financeirização do açaí está em estágio inicial, principalmente devido à entrada de grandes corporações financeirizadas e ao apoio estatal para a ampliação da produção, para o desenvolvimento de tecnologias agroindustriais e de novos produtos.

The analysis of this paper is focused on economic development and environmental surpluses. It emphasizes the importance of agrarian space as well as the state’s role in organizing society to favor capitalist development. The paper employs a Marxist theoretical framework to define the difference between the state and the government. It uses this framework to examine some of the main features of the PT government and its role in promoting rural financialization in Brazil. The paper examines major subsidized financial products as well as their public cost. It concludes that the state’s role in the financialization process was not just a choice on the part of the Brazilian government but also a reflection of the economic power exerted by financial and agrarian capital.

In recent decades, Brazil has experienced a pattern of commodity-based productive specialization as part of the nation’s subordinate entry into the global structure of capital. As a result, the accumulation process has been based primarily on the intensive and extensive exploitation of available natural and ecological resources. From a historical perspective, we apply the theory of the metabolic rift and the structural crisis of capital to analyze the contemporary processes of social degradation of nature resulting from Brazil’s economic development. We focus on the cases of the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado regions to examine the trend towards the progressive elimination of the elementary conditions for the social reproduction of life in the current stage of development of the productive forces on a global scale.

Nas últimas décadas, o Brasil tem experimentado um padrão de especialização produtiva baseado em commodities, na presença de seu ingresso subordinado na estrutura global do capital. Com isso, o processo de acumulação tem se apoiado, dominantemente, sobre a exploração intensiva e extensiva dos recursos naturais e ecológicos disponíveis. Desde uma perspectiva histórica, mobilizamos a teoria da fenda metabólica e da crise estrutural do capital para analisar os processos contemporâneos de degradação social da natureza no curso do particular desenvolvimento econômico brasileiro. Lançamos luz nos casos da Amazônia e do Cerrado brasileiros para examinar a tendência à eliminação progressiva das condições elementares da reprodução social da vida no atual estágio do desenvolvimento das forças produtivas em escala global.

The article addresses the trajectory and adaptative process of Chilean peasant agriculture from the mid-1970s to 2020. Our hypothesis is that peasant agricultural production has been forced into a process of permanent reconversion, which takes place every time a new agrarian policy is defined. Based on a review of secondary data, interviews, documents and other studies on agrarian transformation, we undertake a sociohistorical analysis of the adaptative process of peasant agriculture to these changes in the irrigated valleys of Chile’s central area. We also address the role played by the state in these developments. Our analysis highlights the difficulties of adapting to the neoliberal modernization process, as well as the most recent problems involving drought and the dispute over water in the central valley.