EL DESPLIEGUE DEL AGRONEGOCIO EN TERRITORIOS DE LA SOBERANÍA ALIMENTARIA – CANELONES, URUGUAY

Abstract

Agribusiness represents the main modality of neo-extractivist development style in the Uruguayan rural space. In Canelones department, the advance of agribusiness has strained social relations and compromised environmental quality in territories historically dedicated to food production. The aim of this article is to characterize territorial conflicts in Canelones caused by the advance of agribusiness on food sovereignty territories. Three conflicts occurred between 2008-2020: i) Cuchilla de Rocha: two companies planned to cultivate transgenic soybean on their own and leased lands; ii) Paso Picón: a farmer develops industrial agriculture in a densely populated area; iii) La Armonía: a company applies herbicides on its crops and contaminates the water used by seven families of horticultural producers. The conflicts present in Canelones are the result of health problems, the negative impacts on food production and the degradation of water quality, expressions of a degradation of the entire environmental system. Through the analysis of these cases, the process of agribusiness territorialization and the conflicts arising from its deployment on food sovereignty territories were characterized. It is concluded that the imposition of agribusiness territoriality is the main factor that stresses social relations, even more important than territorialization. The contradictions of the coexistence of agribusiness in territories of food sovereignty, place in the public debate alternative agri-food projects that ensure social equality and environmental sustainability.