Transformations in agroexporting and food producing territories. The case of Río Negro and Canelones, Uruguay

Abstract

Since the end of the 20th century, agribusiness has imposed its territoriality in the Uruguayan agrarian space through strategies and processes that differ spatially and temporally, in the agents that have led the process, and in the impacts and conflicts they have triggered. This article analyzes the insertion of agribusiness and the transformations generated in two territories with contrasting characteristics, territories oriented to food production and commodity agro-exporting territories. The research strategy integrated the processing of official information and the implementation of twenty semi-structured interviews with key agents (linked to family, business and agribusiness production, social movements andinstitutional and academic referents) in order to complementthe characterization of the transformations and identify elements that stress power relations and understand the emerging conflicts. Agribusiness has penetrated Uruguay through a legal and socially accepted strategy, the purchase and/or lease of land, which has limited the generation of conflicts. In Río Negro, a territory with an industrial agricultural and livestock farming tradition, agribusiness has generated alliances with local capital. In Canelones, aterritory historically oriented to food production for local supply, the territoriality of agribusiness hastriggered important conflicts with family production. The modality of agribusiness entry, the pre-existing agrarian structure and the support of the Uruguayan state have determined that the territoriality of agribusiness is the most important factor in the generation of tensions, even in the face of territorialization-deterritorialization processes. The insertion of agribusiness in food sovereignty territories has triggered more conflicts than in territories historically oriented to exports. The conflicts in Canelones have made possible a highly relevant territorial transformation linked to the organization, empowerment of food producers and resistance to the agribusiness model, the first step to consolidate food sovereignty territories.