Subnational Pesticide Governance in Argentina: Juridical, Legal, and Informal Arenas

LAPEGNA, PABLO; KUNIN, JOHANA; PALMISANO, TOMÁS

Workshop; Subnational Environmental Governance Institutions in Latin America; 2022

Tulane University

The agribusiness expansion in Argentina involved several socio-environmental transformations.One of the most important has been the exponential growth of pesticide use throughout thecountry. Pesticide drifts and agrochemical runoffs have become widespread problems in ruraland semi-rural areas, and different reactions to these issues have emerged, from public proteststo instances of regulation, from the outright prohibition of pesticide use to arrangements amongpesticide users. In this paper, we scrutinize pesticide governance in Argentina at the subnationalscale, focusing on three arenas that we call juridical, legal, and informal. Based on a case study inthe province of Formosa, we first analyze the juridical arena involving formal and informalactions in legal mobilization, where a combination of grassroots mobilization, contentiouscollective actions, and legal demands combine to address pesticide exposure. We examine thelegal arena zooming in on local ordinances regulating pesticide spraying in the Pampas region. Inthis arena, we pay special attention to the interaction of multiple legal scales (national, provincial,and local) involved in the creation and application of these local regulations. The informal arenainvolves a diversity of interpersonal agreements, where pesticides are at the center ofindividualized controversies. This arena underlines the role of asymmetric local relations innegotiations and outlines the obstacles for the emergence of legal claims. In the Conclusion, weextract the lessons that emerge from the comparison of juridical, legal, and informal arenas alongthree dimensions that we deem crucial to understanding subnational pesticide governance: therole of social movements and civil society organizations, the use of expertise and counter-expertise, and local cultural codes and class- and ethnic-based inequalities that shape the socialstanding of actors and the legitimacy of claims over the negative impacts of pesticides.