Local is Not Fair: A Comparison of Export-Integrated Campesino Discourse on Markets

• In Event: 286 - Section on Sociology of Development Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Paper Session: Table 04. Trade, Investment and Commodities

Abstract

A discursive shift back to national self-sufficiency and food localism is gaining recognition in academic and policy circles. Development scholars and activists advocate for land redistribution so small farmers can contribute to local food self-sufficiency. This study finds that indigenous peasant farmers do not want to sell their crops in local markets; they want to export. This preference for export is not rooted in a modernizing discourse of global trade as progress, or a radical discourse of global trade as colonial legacy. Rather, it is rooted in the context of their everyday reality: export markets are preferred because they are perceived as less exploitative. Drawing on six months of participant observation in the Andean countryside and 85 interviews with indigenous campesinos who sell their crops through both local market intermediaries and export commodity chains, this paper finds that export markets are viewed as more fair than local markets because they offer stable prices, honest intermediaries, and market incentives for sustainable production methods. If local markets offered these advantages, indigenous peasant farmers in this study would be more receptive to the ideal of food production for domestic consumption.

Author

• Rachel Soper, University of California-San Diego