Genetically modified soybeans, agrochemical exposure, and everyday forms of peasant collaboration in Argentina

Abstract

Since the 2000s, both the production of genetically modified (GM) soybeans and the cases of agrochemical exposure have grown exponentially in Argentina. Drawing on ethnographic research, I analyze how peasant social movements understand the socio-environmental problems caused by the expansion of GM soybeans. I argue that at national, provincial, and local scales, the institutional recognition of peasant social movements and the performative actions of authorities discourage contentious collective action through subtle yet powerful mechanisms. The article contributes to social movement research and to the literature on peasant resistance by analyzing the cultural dynamics that constrain contention and shape processes of peasant collaboration, which are arguably as important as peasant resistance, although much less studied.

Keywords:

• genetically modified soybeans
• agrochemicals
• peasant social movements
• Argentina
• political ethnography
• recognition
• performance
• resistance

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to the Formosans who generously volunteered their time and opened their houses for my fieldwork. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of JPS for their comments and to the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts (University of Georgia), which supported part of this research. An earlier version of this article was presented at the meeting of the Latin American Studies Association in 2014, where I benefitted from the comments of Javiera Barandiarán, Maiah Jaskoski, and Kathryn Hochstetler. Katie Sobering also provided extremely insightful suggestions. Any omissions or errors are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹Based on the report of the Argentine chamber of agrochemical companies (Kleffman Group 2013). I assume that glyphosate sales equal glyphosate use.

²The World Health Organization considers glyphosate as ‘Unlikely to be Hazardous’ and it is listed as ‘Unlikely’ in the US EPA Carcinogens list. The 2,4D, in contrast, is assessed as ‘Moderately Hazardous’ and presents ‘Unclassifiable, ambiguous data’ in EPA list; see the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Pesticide Database. Glyphosate is the active ingredient of Roundup, and its combination with adjuvants and surfactants may increase toxicity (Bonn 2005). On the heated debate about Roundup's toxicity see Séralini et al. (2013).

³See the websites of Grupo de Reflexión Rural (GRR) and of the Centro de Protección de la Naturaleza (CeProNat).

⁴See also Aranda (2008a, 2010a), Ramírez (2012), and Fernández (2014).

⁵A non-exhaustive list includes: MOCASE (Peasant Movement of Santiago del Estero); UNPEPROCH (Union of Small Farmers of Chaco); MAM (Agrarian Movement of Misiones); MOCAFOR (Peasant Movement of Formosa); UST (Landless Union of Mendoza); APENOC (Small Farmers of Northern Córdoba); and Red Puna (Jujuy province). See Domínguez (2009).

⁶In Fraser's (2003, 27) understanding, recognition is not a form of ‘identity politics', but rather part of ‘a politics aimed at overcoming subordination by establishing the misrecognized party as a full member of society'.

⁷Export taxes (retenciones) were reinstated in 2002 at a rate of 10 percent. During Néstor Kirchner's government (2003–2007), export taxes for soybeans reached 24 percent and then were raised to 35 percent: Richardson 2009.

⁸See Aranda 2008b and Dandan 2008.

⁹See Aranda 2009, Piqué and Aranda 2009, and the decree 21/2009, available at the website of the Comisión Nacional de Investigación de Agroquimicos (CNIA).

¹⁰See RENACE (2013).

¹¹Excerpts from CNIA, Comisión Nacional de Investigación de Agroquímicos (2009).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pablo Lapegna

Pablo Lapegna is an assistant professor of sociology and Latin American and Caribbean studies at the University of Georgia (Athens, GA, USA), with a PhD in Sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (2011). He is interested in rural and environmental sociology, social movements, political sociology, and globalization, studied through qualitative methods and focusing on Latin America. He has published articles in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Sociological Forum, Societies Without Borders, Journal of World-Systems Research, and Latin American Politics and Society. His book manuscript about the socio-environmental consequences of genetically modified crops in Argentina and the mobilization and demobilization of social movements is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Email: [email protected]