Bio-hegemony: The political economy of agricultural biotechnology in Argentina

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 27-57

  Newell, Peter ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Agriculture; Argentina; Biotechnology; GM crops; GMOs; Gramsci; Hegemony; Monsanto; Multinational corporations; Soya

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURE; BIOTECHNOLOGY; GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM; HEGEMONY; MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE; POLITICAL ECONOMY;

ARGENTINA; SOUTH AMERICA;

EID: 67749114331     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: 1469767X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X08005105     Document Type: Article

References (142)

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6. On neo-Gramscian approaches in general, see Stephen Gill, (ed.), Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge, 1993), and Adam Morton, Unravelling Gramsci: Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Economy (London, 2007).
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9. In relation to biotechnology see also Rodney Loeppky, 'History, Technology and the Capitalist State: The Comparative Political Economy of Biotechnology and Genomics', Review of International Political Economy, vol. 12, no. 2 (2005), pp. 264-86,
10. and Peter Andrée, 'The Genetic Engineering Revolution in Agriculture and Food: Strategies of the 'Biotech Bloc', in David Levy and Peter Newell (eds.), The Business of Global Environmental Governance (Cambridge MA, 2005), pp. 135-66.
11. The breakdown of interviews so far is as follows: Government officials (8), corporate officials (7), academics and analysts (6), NGOs (3), journalists (2), scientists (1). In many cases the identity of interviewees is protected in order to ensure their anonymity, given the sensitive and controversial nature of some of the interview material.
12. Eduardo Trigo, Daniel Chudnovsky, Eugenio Cap and Andrés López, Los transgénicos en la agricultura argentina (Buenos Aires, 2002)
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17. Peter Newell, 'Corporate Power and Bounded Autonomy in the Global Politics of Biotechnology', in Robert Falkner (ed.), The International Politics of Genetically Modified Food (Basingstoke, 2006), pp. 67-85
18. Peter Newell, 'Biotech Firms, Biotech Politics: Negotiating GMOs in India', Journal of Environment and Development, vol. 16, no. 2 (2007), pp. 183-206.
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31. Ben Ross Schneider, Business Politics and the State in Twentieth-Century Latin America (Cambridge, 2004).
32. Clive James, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops (Ithaca, 2006).
33. 90 per cent of applications for field trials have come from overseas companies: Burachik and Traynor, 'Analysis of a National Biosafety System'.
34. Kathyrn Hochstetler, 'The Multilevel Governance of GM Food in Mercosur', in Falkner (ed.), The International Politics of Genetically Modified Food, pp. 157-74.
35. Daniel Chudnovsky, Los límites de la apertura: Liberalización, reestructuración productiva y medio ambiente (Buenos Aires, 1996).
36. 40.5 million tonnes of soya were harvested in 2005/06: See www.sagpya.mecon.gov.ar/
37. Emiliano Galli, 'De la chaucha de soja al reactor nuclear de investigación', La Nación, 4 January 2005.
38. Alejandro G. Elsztain, chief executive of Cresud, quoted in Vara, 'Argentina GM nation', p. 8.
39. Lilian Joensen, Stella Semino and Helena Paul, 'Argentina: A Case Study on the Impact of Genetically Engineered Soya' (Report for the Gaia Foundation, London, 2005).
40. SAgGPA, Plan estratégico para el desarrollo de la biotecnología agropecuaria 2005-2015 (Buenos Aires, 2004): See www.sagpya.mecon.gov.ar/new/0-0/programas/biotecnologia/pdf/PE.pdf
41. Interview with participant at the meeting from INTA, 8 November 2006.
42. Eduardo Trigo, Daniel Chudnovsky, Eugenio Cap and Andrés López, Los transgénicos en la agricultura argentina (Buenos Aires, 2002).
43. Alejandro Grimson and Gabriel Kessler, On Argentina and the Southern Cone: Neo-liberalism and National Imaginations (London, 2005).
44. Eduardo Trigo et al., Los transgénicos.
45. Greenpeace Argentina, 'Desmontes S.A: Quiénes están detrás de la destrucción de los últimos bosques nativos de la Argentina' (2006): Available at www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/argentina/bosques/desmontes-s-a.pdf
46. Joensen et al., 'Argentina'.
47. Ibid.; Report of Human Rights Ministry, 'Las "Guardias Blancas" en Santiago', 12 March 2003: www.malvenidos.com.ar/archivo/001/nota3.htm
48. 'El lado criminal del boom sojero', Vein-ti-tres, 23 November 2006.
49. On the power of landowners in the first half of the twentieth century see Peter Smith, Politics and Beef in Argentina (New York, 1969).
50. Grugel, 'State and Business', p. 227.
51. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks (New York, 1971), p. 181.
52. Peter Newell, 'Technology, Food, Power: Governing GMOs in Argentina', in Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs (eds.), Agro-Food Corporations, Global Governance, and Sustainability (Cambridge MA, 2009) pp. 253-84.
53. Matthew Crenson, The Un-Politics of Air Pollution (London and Baltimore, 1971).
54. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, p. 423.
55. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, p. 172.
56. John Holloway and Sol Picciotto (eds.), State and Capital: A Marxist Debate (London, 1978)
57. Peter Newell and Matthew Paterson, 'Climate for Business: Global Warming, the State and Capital', Review of International Political Economy, vol. 5, no. 4 (1998), pp. 679-703.
58. Newell, 'Trade and Biotechnology in Latin America'.
59. Peter Andrée, 'The Genetic Engineering Revolution in Agriculture and Food: Strategies of the Biotech Bloc', in David Levy and Peter Newell (eds.), The Business of Global Environmental Governance (Cambridge MA, 2005), p. 137-38.
60. Herbert Gottweis, Governing Molecules: The Discursive Politics of Genetic Engineering in Europe and the United States (Cambridge MA, 1998), p. 264.
61. Stephen Gill, 'Globalisation, Market Civilisation and Disciplinary Neoliberalism', Millennium, vol. 24, no. 3 (1995) pp. 399-423
62. William Robinson, A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class and State in a Transnational World (Baltimore, 2004)
63. Kees van der Pijl, Transnational Classes and International Relations (London, 1998).
64. Morton, Unravelling Gramsci, p. 113.
65. Gottweis, Governing Molecules
66. Peter Newell, 'Lost in Translation? Domesticating Global Policy on GMOs: Comparing India and China', Global Society, vol. 22, no. 1 (2008), pp. 115-36.
67. Peter Newell, 'Globalisation and the Governance of Biotechnology', Global Environmental Politics, vol. 3, no. 2 (2003), pp. 56-72.
68. 'Ventas argentinas de soja a China se acelerarán', Revista 7, 11 November 2003: www.elpanamaamerica.com.pa/archive/11112003/ finance12.shtml
69. Interview with Mónica L. Pequeño Araujo, Coordinadora de Proyectos Especiales en Biotecnología, Instituto Nacional de Semillas, 24 October 2006.
70. Interview with official from Ministry of Agriculture, November 2006.
71. Interview with official from Ministry of Agriculture, November 2006.
72. Interview with grain trader, Cargill, October 2006.
73. Interview with head of regulatory affairs, multinational corporation, October 2006.
74. Holloway and Picciotto, State and Capital.
75. Interview at CONABIA, November 2006.
76. Interview with biotechnology sector analyst, 26 October 2006.
77. Interview with Maria Laura Villa Mayor, lawyer, INASE, 24 October 2006.
78. Interview with researcher with agricultural trade policy institute, Buenos Aires, 2 December 2006
79. Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, 'Terminator Seed Battle Begins: Farmers Face Billions of Dollars in Potential Costs' (2006), available at www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/ publications.html?pub_id=23.
80. Ibid.
81. 'Lanzaron una nueva cámara semillera', InfoCampo, 24-30 November 2006, p. 3.
82. Interview, Ministry of Agriculture, November 2006.
83. American Soybean Association, 'South American soymeal imports frustrate U.S farmers', press release, 30 August 2002.
84. Interview with IPR lawyer, Ministry of Agriculture, 10 November 2006.
85. Interview material, Secretary of Agriculture, November 2006.
86. Newell, 'Lost in Translation'.
87. Rachel Nellen-Stucky and François Meienberg, 'Harvesting Royalties for Sowing Dissent? Monsanto's Campaign against Argentina's Patent Policy' (Berne, 2006): Available at .
88. Nicolas Misculin, 'Monsanto loses Spanish court case on Argentine soy', Reuters, 7 September 2007.
89. Ibid.
90. Peter Newell, 'Technology, Food, Power'.
91. For the argument about the weakness of business organisations in Argentina, see Schneider, Business Politics.
92. Greenpeace Argentina, 'Lavagna, el empleado del mes de Monsanto', 13 July 2004. http://www.greenpeace.org/argentina/bosques/ lavagna-el-empleado-del-mes-d
93. Interview with personnel from Cargill, October 2006; interview with staff from DNMA, October 2006.
94. Interview with Mónica L. Pequeño Araujo, Coordinadora de Proyectos Especiales en Biotecnología, Instituto Nacional de Semillas, 24 October 2006.
95. Shaun Breslin, 'Reforming China's Embedded Socialist Compromise: China and the WTO', Global Change, Peace and Security, vol. 15, no. 3 (2003), pp. 213-29.
96. Interview with senior regulatory affairs official of a multinational corporation, October 2006.
97. Interview with Ruben Ciani and Federico Alais, DNMA, Sección de Comercio Internacional, 26 October 2006.
98. Michael Lipskey, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services (New York, 1980).
99. Interview, senior official, SENASA, November 2006.
100. Patrick van Zwanenburg, 'Risk Assessment Policies: Differences across jurisdictions: Argentina' (ESTO Risk Assessment Policy Project, draft case study, Aptil 2006), p. 20.
101. Newell, 'Lost in translation?'
102. Erik Millstone and Patrick van Zwanenburg, 'Food and Agricultural Biotechnology Policy: How Much Autonomy Can Developing Countries Exercise?', Development Policy Review, vol. 21, no. 5-6 (2003), pp. 655-67.
103. Interviews with FAB director and other personnel, December 2006.
104. David Forgas (ed.), The Antonio Gramsci Reader (New York, 2000), pp. 380-1.
105. Gotrweis, Governing Molecules, p. 264.
106. Ibid, p. 264.
107. Interview with leading industry association, October 2006.
108. SAgGPA, Introduction a las negociaciones internacionals en biotecnología agropecuaria (Buenos Aires, 2005).
109. Data taken from the following media circulation sites: http://www.pressreference. com/A-Be/Argentina.html; http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Argentina-MEDIA.html.
110. Clarín, 'Entre realidades y promesas', Rural section, 17 May 2008
111. La Nación, 'Una respuesta a la demanda de alimentos', Campo section, 31 May 2008
112. La Nación, 'El peronismo y el campo', opinion piece, 2. April 2008.
113. Clarín, 'Entre los agroquímicos y también la biotecnologia', Rural section, 31 May 2008
114. La Nación, 'La soya no es un yuyo', main section, 2 April 2008
115. La Nación, 'Las nuevas semillas que el mercado espera', 24 February 2008
116. La Nación, 'Se vienen más híbridos de maíz', Campo section, 21 June 2008
117. Clarn̂, 'Un mundo repleto de innovación', Rural section, 12 April 2008
118. La Nación, 'Importante avance en el cultivo de girasol', Campo section, 21 June 2008
119. La Nación, 'La soya no es un yuyo', main section, 2 April 2008
120. La Nación, 'Respeto por el campo', opinion piece, 12. March 2008.
121. La Nación, 'El peronismo y el campo', opinion piece, 2 April 2008
122. La Nación, 'Proyecto agropecuario?', opinion piece, 16 May 2008
123. La Nación, 'Unidos no solo por la soja', Campo section, 5 April 2008
124. La Nación, 'El peronismo y el campo', opinion piece, 2 April 2008
125. La Nación, 'Una respuesta a la demanda de alimentos', Campo section, 31 May 2008
126. Clarín, 'Tecnología para cuidar el clima y ganar energia', Rural section, 29 March 2008.
127. La Naión, 'Proyecto agropecuario?', opinion piece, 16 May 2008
128. La Nación, 'Unidos no solo por la soja', Campo section, 5 April 2008
129. la Nación, 'La soya no es un yuyo', main section, 2 April 2008
130. 'Respeto por el campo', La Nación, opinion piece, 2 March 2008.
131. La Nación, 'El peronismo y el campo', opinion piece, 2 April 2008.
132. La Nación, 'Apertura a los transgénicos', Campo section, 26 April 2008
133. La Nación, 'Respeto por el campo', opinion piece, 12 March 2008.
134. Vein-ti-tres, 'El lado criminal del boom sojero, 23 November 2006.
135. La Nación, 'Respeto por el campo', opinion piece, 12 March 2008.
136. La Nación, 'Unidos no solo por la soia', Campo section, 5 April 2008
137. Clarín, 'Entre realidades y promesas', Rural section, 17 May 2008
138. La Nación, 'Una respuesta a la demanda de alimentos', Campo section, 31 May 2008
139. Clarín, 'Entre los agroquímicos y también la biotecnologia' Rural section, 31 May 2008. Acsoja is the Asociación de la Cadena de la Soja.
140. Anders Hansen, The Mass Media and Environmental Issues (Leicester, 103), p. xviii.
141. Gramsci, op. cit. p. 212.
142. Adolfo Boy, Grupo Reflexión Rural, speech at the meeting 'Enlazando Alternativas', Vienna May 2006.