The impact of global agro-industrial production on farmers in Argentina

• In Event: Agricultores, campesinos y asalariados frente a la agricultura industrial

Abstract

Based on long-standing anthropological fieldwork among Argentine farmers, this paper discusses the impact of the “GMO revolution” on farmer communities in Argentina.Through this revolution small and medium farmers tend to disappear, a few are able to expand and become entrepreneurs, while their farm labourers often become unemployed poor, surviving on a variety of public social programmes.
GM soy now makes up more than half the nation's crop production and a fourth of its exports. Today, soy production is expanding more and more, even in the northern parts of Argentina, areas once considered too dry and uneconomical to produce soy. But with genetically modified seeds, which were introduced to Argentina in 1996, it's now deemed possible. With an export tax 35 % on soy, this product represents money or the green gold for the State, at the same time as it creates a series of social and environmental problems.
The paper focuses on direct and indirect effects of the expansion of GM soy cultivation among family farmers in Santa Fe province. It discusses changes in land use patterns, including changes in property rights, land tenure and use, employment and income pattern, and migration at household, community and regional level. With the non-tilling practice associated with GM soy cultivation, labour demand has been dramatically reduced and this creates unemployment and increased poverty among rural labourers. The paper finally explores possible environmental and health problems associated with the new biotechnology.

Author

• Kristi Anne Stølen, University of Oslo