Land grabbing and regulation of foreign land ownership in Argentina. A case study of the Agrifood Agreement between the Province of Rio Negro and China.

MORA, SOL

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; Conferencia FLACSO-ISA; 2014

In a context in which the convergence of food, financial, energy and climate crisis converted land grabbing into a global phenomenon, Argentina began to undertake decisive actions to pass  a  legislation  for  regulating  foreign  land  acquisitions.  Nevertheless,  the  initiative coincided with the efforts of several provincial governments to attract land investments. The purpose of this paper is analyze the agrifood agreement signed for the province of Rio Negro  with  the  Chinese  stated-owned  company   Heillongjiang  Beidahuang  State  Farms  Business Trade Group Co. Ltd as an expression of land grabbing in Argentina. The  assumption  underlying  this  work  is  that  national  legislative  initiatives  for  regulating foreign land acquisitions are not sufficient to prevent land  grabbing situations, as a result of  the specific characteristics of the phenomena. With that aim, the article stars with and analysis of the agreement, the actors involved and the negotiation process. This will be followed by an enquiry about the compatib ility of the agreement with national and provincial laws on this matter. Subsequently, will be describe the  social  reactions  to  the  agreements.  The  final  section  examines  the  effects  of  social  reactions and laws in the development of the agreement.