Food sovereignty and neo-extractivism: limits and possibilities of an alternative development model

ABSTRACT

Food sovereignty and neo-extractivism are two highly contentious concepts that have emerged in the development studies literature and as development alternatives pursued predominantly by governments in Latin America. This paper engages with both Critical Development Studies (CDS) and Critical Globalization Studies (CGS) to analyze the dynamics of this post-neoliberal model in Bolivia, providing insights into the convergences and contradictions of neo-extractivism and food sovereignty. Rather than challenging or transforming the neoliberal model of development, it is argued that the post-neoliberal model has been used strategically by states to gain and maintain legitimacy while facilitating and even exacerbating exploitative forms of extractivism for the accumulation of wealth and power. This has been possible, in part, due to the contradictory class positions that have materialized as the rural poor are increasingly dependent upon, and adversely incorporated into, new ‘modes of extraction’.

KEYWORDS:

• Food sovereignty
• neo-extractivism
• critical development studies
• critical globalization studies
• Bolivia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 While praised for their ideals, the authors cited provide critical analyses of the challenges between such ideals and how they play out in practice.

2 For more comprehensive, in-depth and critical perspectives on food sovereignty see the special issues in Globalizations, guest edited by Shattuck, Schiavoni, and VanGelder (2015); the Journal of Peasant Studies, guest edited by Edelman et al. (2014); and Third World Quarterly, guest edited by Alonso-Fradejas, Borras, Holmes, Holt-Giménez, and Robbins (2015).

3 Dumping is an international trade strategy whereby countries export food surpluses and sell them at below market prices with the help of government subsidies which often have devastating effects for local producers in the receiving country.

4 See Franco, Monsalve, and Borras (2015) and McKay (2018b).

5 See McKay (2018a) for an example of control grabbing though value chain concentration.

6 Though the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) was an attempt to facilitate more regional integration and partially de-link from the dependence on the US dollar and trade.

7 Discussion with key informants revealed that it is common practice to not claim all minerals extracted.

8 Note Bolivia's fiscal revenues have long been dependent on the hydrocarbon sector, preceding the Morales administration. In 2000, hydrocarbons represented 83% of fiscal revenues; in 2006, 55% and in 2016/17 back to 80% (Fundación Jubileo, 2018).

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 430-2018-00439].

Notes on contributors

Ben M. McKay

Ben McKay is an Assistant Professor of Development and Sustainability in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary. He received his PhD from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands, and is a Research Associate and part of the Global Secretariat of the BRICS Initiative for Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS). His research interests include the politics of agrarian change in Latin America, food sovereignty alternatives, the extractive character of capitalist agricultural development, the global food system, flex crops, and the rise of emerging economies and their implications for global agrarian transformation. He has carried out research and maintains research interests in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. His work has been published in the Journal of Peasant Studies, World Development, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Agrarian Change, Energy Policy, Third World Quarterly, Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, Globalizations, among others.