Lecture 10 - History of Americas Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is agroecology?
- Agroecology and sustainable agriculture
3 aspects
- Scientific actors
- Social movements
- Farmers
“Agroecology focuses on understanding the complex interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment in agricultural landscapes. It seeks to develop practices that support biodiversity, promote ecological resilience, enhance local food systems, and improve the livelihoods of farming communities, while minimizing negative environmental impacts.”
“Peasant Agroecology is the people’s response to the inefficiencies and negative effects of the industrial food system, which is based on the extensive use of pesticides and land grabbing.”
What are Guzman 3 dimensions of agroecology?
Technical-productive
Socio-economic
Political-cultura
What does Extractvism include in Latin America?
- Conversion of common goods to commodities
- The intensive exploitation
- The scare or non-existent degree of local, regional and national processing of said goods
- The exportation of primary material to supply the industry and or consumption of central countries, generating in the process extraordinary rents captured mostly by external agents
What does the the green revolution stand for?
two technical revolutions:
–> new crop varieties
—> development of crop
The gene revolution is a part of the green revolution, what does it consist of?
genetic engineering
bioinformatic
What’s an example on a consequence from this green revolution?
EX Soy fever in Argentina
= Argentina lost 6.5 million HA of native forests in the last 20 years
= Black hole of biodiversity
2010-2020 : the lost decade
= Like a cork
= Cuerpo-Territorio → health risks due till de olika miljökonsekvenser som skett, hela mänskliga kroppen är påverkad, a productive but also social model, the importance of territory, agro-chemicals entering the body, tumörer osv
“extractive industries”
= Generellt påverkar kvinnor, ursprungsbefolkning mest
= Sociala konsekvenser: insucerity in work of care, loss of economic autonomy, sexual violence, weakening of their communal roles
Kvinnorna stannar hemma: ingen ekonomisk kontroll, männen arbetar
What is neo-extractivism?
A new form of extractivism characterized by more active state intervention and regulation, recuperation of rents, and links to progressive ideologies.
It combines environmental destruction with social welfare programs. (paradox)
Revenues from resource exports are reinvested in social development within the country
What does agroecology resist and whats it’s key goal?
The detrimental effects of extractivism and industrial agriculture.
+
= Challenge existing power relations
= Revindicate ancestral knowledge
= Promote food sovereignty (control over food production and access to healthy food)
What are the three parts of Wezel’s (2009) map of agroecology?
= Scientific discipline
= Movement
= Practice
(Note: Map lacks focus on producers.)
What are the three types of agroecology according to Giraldo and Rosset?
= Neoliberal agroecology
= Institutional agroecology
= Emancipatory agroecology
What are the 7 principles of emancipatory agroecology? (Giraldo & Rosset)
1) Political: Build autonomy: Question and transform structures, instead of reproducing them
2) Technical: Cultivate autonomy
3) Economic: Shape economies based on values
4) Organizational: Build capacity and spirituality (not just productivism)
5) METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE: Build horizontal processes, not hierarchies
6) PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLE:
Build capacity to struggle and transform, not to conform
7) PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLE: Act based on culture and spirituality, not on productivism
(Case study) Madres de ituzaingo - What health issues were reported in Ituzaingo?
Increased cancers, genetic malformations, spontaneous abortions.
(Case study) Madres de ituzaingo - What happened in the 2012 trial?
Condemnation of harmful practices, but only those who executed them were punished, not the owners.
What happened in Malvinas Argentinas between 2012–2016?
2012: Monsanto reveals plans
2013: Protests begin
2016: Monsanto withdraws
New agroecological projects emerge to fight poverty
What is Monsanto known for?
GMO production; a multinational American company.
Who are the Zapatistas?
Indigenous movement living in small villages, growing corn, visible since 1994
- Mexico
- Women often in front
How is agroecology viewed in this movement? (Zapatistas)
As a feminist and decolonial project, crucial in Latin American peasant movements
What is the MST and what’s it main principle?
One of the largest rural movements in Brazil, focusing on land occupation and defending vulnerable groups
- Agroecology and agrarian reform
- Rural exodus leads to slums in cities due to lack of space (what they focus on)
Rural exodus leads to slums in cities due to lack of space
Processes that precede capitalism, forcing people to work for others’ profit.
What is the creation of new imaginaries?
Developing new ways of thinking about food sovereignty and democratic control over food systems
What is territorial analysis (Escobar)?
Examining material and nonmaterial arenas—land, body, biodiversity, culture, markets—where disputes occur
What are decolonial and feminist analyses?
Vandana Shiva’s concept of epistemic violence:
Violence against the subject (exclusion of local people as non-experts)
Violence against the object (modern science’s impact on nature)
Violence against the beneficiary (harm to the poor in knowledge production)
Violence against knowledge itself (supposed superiority of modern science)
How is territory related to agroecology?
Through education, crop ownership, politics, and social relationships.
How does agroecology serve as a tool for emancipation?
Creates imaginaries challenging capitalist discourse
Engages in territorial contestation to build social/cultural relations
Centers marginalized voices and leadership
