'Soyization' and food security in South America

Abstract

In the Southern Cone of South America, the cultivation of soybeans embodies many of the issues related to existing conceptions of the global food system outlined in the first section of the book. Soybeans – as an integral component of meat production systems in Europe and China (see Campbell, this volume) as well as more recent contributions to the promotion of biofuel (see McMichael, this volume) – represent an important source of export income for the debt-ridden economies of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay (and more recently Uruguay and Bolivia). In addition to meeting the financial needs of these countries, soybeans facilitate their participation in international trade and the neoliberal ‘solution’ to food security (see Pritchard, this volume, and compare to Neilson and Arifin, this volume). Because cultivation of soybeans largely involves ‘modern’ management practices including mechanization, advanced no-till cultivation and GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) seeds, it has been readily incorporated within the efforts of the countries to modernize and conform to the quantity idealism of the global food system (see Stock and Carolan, this volume).