Social risk perception and gender dynamics in pesticide-based agricultural production in the Argentine pampas

KUNIN, JOHANA

Nueva York

Simposio; Exposome Symposium; 2021

Environmental Medicine and Public Health Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Women and men do not perceive dangers or risks in the same way. Nor do they react to them in an identical manner. However, when it comes to the debate about pesticides in Argentina, few risk prevention campaigns, and few studies, have addressed the relationship between gender dynamics and risk perception. I have a PhD in Social Anthropology and am currently a Postdoc. For the past 7 years I have been conducting ethnographic field work alongside rural workers in the Argentine Pampas. I want to know why women identify and denounce pesticide-related risks and why men tend to turn their backs on the problem.Let me first provide some context. Argentina is one of the world's biggest producers and exporters of genetically modified soybeans. GM soybeans are genetically engineered to resist glyphosate. In 2015, glyphosate was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans”. The expansion of GM soy was encouraged by a surge in international prices and today soybeans represent one-fourth of Argentine exports.