Soybean agribusiness in Argentina (1990-2015): Socioeconomic, territorial, environmental, and political implications

GÓMEZ LENDE, SEBASTIÁN; VELÁZQUEZ, GUILLERMO

Agriculture value chain

IntechOpen

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

Nowadays, soybean value chain is the major expression of agribusiness in Argentina, aswell as one of the most controversial and troublesome uses of territory of this country.Because of such situation, the main purpose of this chapter is analyzing the worryingsocio-economic, territorial, environmental, and political implications unchained by theexpansion of the soybean?s pattern during the last 25 years. On the basis of scholarly literatureand both official and unofficial sources of data, six capital features are studied: thetechnique and productive restructuration of the rural sector, the rural property?s concentration,the vertical integration of the agro-industrial chain, the new territorial enclosures,the socio-ecological and health consequences caused by the advance of the soybean frontier,and the influence of the transnational seed industry on the farmers? subordination.Our results clearly show that soybean´s advance has implied the substantial reductionof both the number of rural units and the traditional production areas, the emergenceof new leasing practices, the growth of both the concentration of the land and the verticalintegration of the accumulation chain, the expulsion of aborigines and peasants, thedisturbing increase of deforestation and environmental degradation, the serious impactson the population´s health due to the massive fumigations with agrochemicals, and theloss of legal and food sovereignty. The chapter?s findings suggest that soybean agribusinessshould be considered as an irrational use of territory for most of the national society.