Hunger, Obesity and Soy. The Agribusiness Diet in Argentina

BLACHA, LUIS ERNESTO

Porto Alegre

Congreso; IV ISA Forum of Sociology; 2021

International Sociology Association

The new uses of the territory in Argentina of the 21st century allow an increase in productivity that cannot be transferred to the nutritional field. The consequences of soy monoculture include a simplification of ecosystems and an augmentation in the overweight in the population, which increase existing social inequalities. A country of 45 million inhabitants that produce calories for 400 million human beings, many of them proteins, has strong nutritional inequalities. Despite having consolidated a unified food pattern since the late 19th century, with access to proteins of high biological value, Argentina begins the transition of its agrifood chains in a context of great social inequality.This paper aims to analyse how agribusiness solutions end up generating new social problems that increase the existing asymmetries. The notion of risk of Ulrich Beck dialogues with the biopower of Michel Foucault to understand the rationality of agribusiness as a feedback that combines climate change with malnutrition. New forms of malnutrition where ?the hunger fat people? are present in the strong bond are established between the decline in income and the increase in consumption of sugary products. This is a peculiar scenario in the global South because its characteristic diet was based on excess: native versions of popular European dishes with lots of meat. In the case of Argentina, the question of environmental sustainability must also include the population's healthiness as monoculture trends significantly reduce the omnivorous nature of the diet. The proposal is to carry out a critical sociological approach to the prevailing power relations that prevent transforming the agrifood system, that distance consumers from producers and question us if we can survive the Anthropocene.