Rural technology and agribusiness in Argentina. The rationale underpinning the dominant technological model

Abstract

The paper analyses the main characteristics of the technological model fostered by agribusiness in Argentina, discusses its main problems and highlights the need to analyze it within a broader economic and political context. This technology is described as a technological fix and three main attributes are presented: instantaneity, transitoriness, and recurrence. The supposed efficiency of the productive model fostered by agribusiness occurs at the expense of natural capital depletion and at the costs internalized by other social actors. This is happening either via accumulation by dispossession, or through the socialization and temporal deferment of its negative externalities. Its strength largely transcends the technological domains. To bring this model into question would imply not only to object its visible head (i.e., agribusiness), but also to question the institutions (scientific, educative, juridical, and administrative) and the political structures that support it. Finally, the paper discusses some alternatives and suggests to develop a political agronomy for Latin America.