Soybean agribusiness in Argentina (1990-2015). Socio-economic, territorial, environmental, and political implications

GÓMEZ LENDE, S; VELÁZQUEZ, G

Agricultural Value Chain

Intechopen

Lugar: Rijeka; Año: 2018; p. 117 - 136

Nowadays, soybean value chain is both the major expression of agribusiness and one of themost troublesome uses of territory of Argentina. This chapter is aimed to analyzing the worryingsocio-economic, territorial, environmental, and political implications unchained bythe expansion of the soybean?s pattern during the last 25 years. On the basis of scholarly literatureand both official and unofficial sources of data, we have studied the restructurationof the rural sector, the concentration of both the rural property and the agro-industrial chain,the new territorial enclosures, the socio-ecological and health consequences of the soybean?sadvance, and the influence of the transnational seed industry on the farmers? subordination.Our results show a substantial reduction of both the amount of rural units and the traditionalproduction areas, the emergence of new leasing practices, the accumulation chain?svertical integration, the growth of the land?s concentration, the expulsion of aborigines andpeasants, the increase of deforestation and environmental degradation, the loss of legal andfood sovereignty, and the serious impacts on the population?s health due to the massivefumigations with agrochemicals. The chapter?s findings suggest that soybean agribusinessshould be considered as an irrational use of territory for most of the national society.