Agro-extractivism

ABSTRACT

The term agro-extractivism has become synonymous with large-scale, corporate-controlled, monoculture plantation agriculture. The aim of this concept note is to clarify the extractivist dynamics in the current context of the capitalist development process. The paper surveys the development of agro-extractivism as a conceptual framework and as a feature of the contemporary political economy of agrarian change in Latin America. It briefly reflects on the potential contributions of land-based struggles to post-extractivist alternatives based on food sovereignty politics. The paper concludes by assessing the broader implications of agro-extractivism for our understanding of the agrarian question in the twenty-first century.

KEYWORDS:

• extractivism
• agro-extractivism
• capitalist development
• accumulation by dispossession
• Latin America
• peasants
• agrarian change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 New interpretations of extractivism have expanded its conceptual boundaries beyond its original application to natural resource extraction to include forms of digital extractivism (Chagnon, Hagolani-Albov, and Hokkanen 2021), financial extractivism (Gago and Mezzadra 2017), and epistemic and ontological extractivism (Grosfoguel 2016). For an excellent survey of the myriad ways in which extractivism has been conceived, see Chagnon et al. (2022). For concerns that such conceptual stretching is diluting the analytical utility of the term, see Gudynas (2020).

2 These so-called ‘pink tide’ governments combined heterodox economic policies with the expansion of social spending funded by the greater use of resource rents derived from high commodity prices – resulting in the formation of a ‘commodity consensus’ (Svampa 2015) around economic development based on the appropriation of natural resource wealth and the subsequent reprimarization of the region’s economies that continues to reinforce a negative path dependence (Cypher 2010). For an excellent regional overview and national case studies on the dynamics of agrarian change across the progressive cycle of left-wing government in Latin America throughout the 2000s and 2010s, see Kay and Vergara-Camus (2018).

3 The terms agro-, agricultural, and agrarian extractivism are all used synonymously throughout the critical extractivist literature.

4 Land grabbing is understood as ‘the capturing of control of relatively vast tracts of land and other natural resources through a variety of mechanisms and forms that involve large-scale capital that often shifts resource use orientation into extractive character, whether for international or domestic purposes, as capital’s response to the convergence of food, energy and financial crises, climate change mitigation imperatives, and demands for resources from newer hubs of global capital’ (Borras et al. 2012, 851, emphasis added). A key land grabbing driver in Latin America has been the emergence and expansion of ‘flex crops’ – such as soybeans, sugarcane, and oil palm – with multiple uses (feed, food, fuel, fiber, industrial raw materials, etc.) that can be flexibly interchanged according to market signals.

5 For a summary report of the conference, see Kurakin (2017).

6 A Spanish edition of the book has been published in open access by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), see McKay, Alonso-Fradejas, and Ezquerro-Cañete (2022).

7 The authors make a subtle, yet important distinction between extractive and extractivist: ‘While all forms of agriculture/commodity production involve resource extraction, some do so to a larger extent than others – in terms of scale, pace, and reach. We argue that it is analytically useful to differentiate between (necessarily) extractive and (profit-driven, highly) extractivist forms of agricultural production’ (McKay, Alonso-Fradejas, and Ezquerro-Cañete 2021, 16–17n1).

8 The food sovereignty project is about restoring democratic forms of local and national food systems through participatory decision-making and building viable alternatives based on the foundation of low-input, eco-farming, and consumer rights to adequate and appropriate foods. Such a model can only be viable after a significant programme of redistributive land reform, and at least initial support from the state via provision of technical assistance, rural extension and supporting alternative markets for smaller scale producers (Vergara-Camus 2022).

9 See also the forthcoming special issue on ‘Toxicity and Environmental Violence in Latin America’ in the Journal of Political Ecology, edited by Débora Swistun, Diego Lugo-Vivas, and Irene Vélez-Torres.

10 See also the forthcoming special issue on ‘The Agrarian Question as an Ecological Question in Latin America’ in Latin American Perspectives, edited by Daniela Garcia Grandon, Joana Salém Vasconcelos, and Andrew R. Smolski.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Henry Veltmeyer

Henry Veltmeyer is Senior Research Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Mexico, and Professor Emeritus of International Development Studies at Saint Mary's University, Canada, with a specialized interest in Latin American development. In 2020, he was awarded the distinction Emeritus National Researcher by Conacyt, Mexico's National Research Council. In addition to holding a Senior Research Fellowship in advanced Latin American Studies at the University of Guadalajara, He is co-editor of Routledge's Critical Development Studies book series and has authored and edited over 50 books on Latin America and the political economy of international development, including New Extractivism in Latin America (2015) and most recently, with A. Ezquerro-Cañete, From Extractivism to Sustainability: Scenarios and Lessons from Latin America (London: Routledge. 2023).

Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete

Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete is Assistant Professor (LTA) in the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. He is a former Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS) at the University of Guadalajara. He holds a cotutelle PhD in International Development Studies from Saint Mary's University and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas. He is co-editor of Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America (2021) and From Extractivism to Sustainability: Scenarios and Lessons from Latin America (2023).