Argentina, where around 60 per cent of the arable land is planted with genetically-modified soya, has become one of the countries where the agribusiness model is expanding the most rapidly. Recent years have also, however, seen the strong emergence of an alternative model promoting food sovereignty and agroecological practices, in production and consumption. Fundamental to this transition are women, who identify the agribusiness model with the patriarchal system and are insisting on the need to include a gender perspective in agroecology.
“Agribusiness is a patriarchal model. It is the men who choose it. The man takes care of the economic side and the woman takes care of the kitchen, etc., that’s why he chooses this model; it’s not that he doesn’t realise, but he doesn’t attach as much importance to his children’s health and nutrition.”
In the same vein, Pellegrini points out, that “agroecology must go hand in hand with recovering women’s role as caretakers of the land, the planet, and the family, at the same time as men learn to share the care work. We have to understand that the violence we inflict on the land with the agribusiness model is the same violence that we, as women, experience in the flesh.”
Source: Feminist agroecology is taking on the agribusiness model in Argentina – Equal Times