Agrarian Extractivism in Latin America

Ben M. McKay is Assistant Professor of Development and Sustainability in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary in Canada. His research focuses on the political economy and ecology of agrarian change in Latin America, agrarian extractivism, and food sovereignty alternatives. He is the author of The Political Economy of Agrarian Extractivism: Lessons from Bolivia (2020) and co-editor of The Edward Elgar Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies (2021) and Rural Transformations and Agro-Food Systems (2018).Alberto Alonso-Fradejas is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Human Geography and Planning Department, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University. Alberto is also an Associate Researcher at the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam, a Fellow of the Guatemalan Institute of Agrarian and Rural Studies (IDEAR), and Reviews Section Co-Editor for the Journal of Peasant Studies (JPS).Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete holds a double PhD in International Development Studies from Saint Mary’s University and the Autonomous University of Zacatecas. His research focuses on the dynamics of agrarian transformations and new peasant movements in Paraguay. His work has been published in scholarly journals such as Journal of Agrarian Change, Latin American Perspectives, and Estudios Críticos del Desarrollo.

"This is a brilliant, ground-breaking book on extractivism, one of the world’s most important development issues today. It is a must read for everyone who aspires for social justice and sustainable development." - Saturnino M. Borras Jr., professor of Agrarian Studies, International Institute of Social Studies, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Peasant Studies and co-author of The Politics of Transnational Agrarian Movements."This is an urgent and necessary book that exposes the way contemporary agriculture is organized by examining the central pillars that define the logic of capital accumulation in the production of agro-food commodities, on both the material and ideological-political levels. It offers theoretical depth and historical specificity to the concept ‘extractivism’ – a concept whose power is also played out in the struggles that peasant movements and socio-environmental organizations are leading throughout the world." - Carla Gras, Senior Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina and coordinator of the Rural Studies and Globalization program at the Institute of Higher Social Studies, National University of San Martín (IDEAS-UNSAM)."Agrarian extractivism in Latin America thoroughly explores how green paradises, sustainable fields, or productive crops can lead to extractive processes when they are linked to edible monocultures (soy, pineapple, sugarcane, oil palms), global extraction chains (green fuels), expert and technical knowledge that increases production (transgenic seeds), and unequal notions of sustainable development (symmetric forests). Agrarian extractivism leads to daily dispossessions and socio-environmental and intersectional inequalities, by erasing local people's realities, and creating toxic landscapes and unlivable futures. The book encourages us to rethink the agrarian contexts in Latin America. It opens possibilities to discover local political actions around food sovereignty that can transform the current social and environmental crises into a plural and diverse perspectives centered on the autonomy of producing food interconnected with territories, nonhumans, humans and life itself." - Astrid Ulloa, Professor, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

• Introduction; 1 The Biotechnological Agrarian Model in Argentina: fighting against capital within science; 2 Extractive dynamics of agrarian change in Bolivia; 3 Agrarian extractivism in the Brazilian Cerrado; 4 Social reproduction, dispossession, and the gendered workings of agrarian extractivism in Colombia; 5 Agrarian extractivism and sustainable development: the politics of pineapple expansion in Costa Rica; 6 Gender inclusion in the sugarcane production of agrofuels in coastal Ecuador: illusionary promises of rural development within a new agrarian extractivism; 7 Life purging agrarian extractivism in Guatemala: towards a renewable but unlivable future?; 8 Extractive agave and tequila production in Jalisco, Mexico; 9 Forestry extractivism in Uruguay