The debate on climate change in the market for grapes and apples in Argentina, since the end of the 20th century. Is climate change to blame for it all?

FACUNDO ROJAS; EUNICE NODARI

Bristol

Conferencia; European Society for Environmental History Conference 2022; 2022

European Society for Environmental History

The production of grapes (Vitis vinifera ) and apple (Malus domestica ) have been central products in the economy of the province of Mendoza and the Alto Valle de Río Negro, Argentina, during much of the 20th century, although with important differences. In this century the production of apples has declined in both provinces, while that of grapes and wine has stabilized or grown in certain enclaves, although the conditions of their markets, their actors and the associated social representations have changed profoundly. The rise of the environmental issue in the fruit and wine discussion is another sign of the last decades. The debates around the use of water or around the relationships between climate change and fruit production have connected with other processes and conflicts such as the questioning of mega-mills and fracking. However, different meaningsare given to climate change in relation to these activities. There is an emerging literature that highlights the invisibility of the unequal effects of environmental problems in regional agriculture and agribusiness, the justification of old inequities in water distribution or even the denial of a process of climate variability and its necessary mitigation. The aim of this presentation is to examine the existing discussions and proposes a comparison between two Argentine dryland regions: Mendoza and El Alto Valle de Río Negro. Analyzing different documents of our recent history, it is argued that both for the reconversion of the fruit activity and the promotion of the wine industry, similar arguments are used around climate change, but in divergent senses. These analyzes tend to be too focused on classical ecology or macroeconomic analysis, more than once disconnected from the analysis of other key actors in the production and consumption chains, such as small producers and real estate agents (or land tenure).