‘SOYIZATION’ AND FOOD SECURITY IN SOUTH AMERICA - Food Systems Failure - page 210

Commenting on the global food system and the role peasants should have in it, a
member of the MOCASE-VC asserted that:
In my opinion, the one who would be producing foodstuffs in large quantity
would be the campesino. Healthy foodstuffs … a sustainable production. A time
will come when the small campesino will be the one who provides food to the
world. Here they come and sow soybeans. In two or three years of sowing soy-
beans, they won't have fertile land for further cultivation; they will stop sowing
soybeans. And that [land] is going to be left behind and they won't produce any-
thing, because they are not going to be able to produce. In contrast, the economy
of the campesino is smaller but more reliable.
Informant 5, MOCASE-VC, interviewed 1.3.2010
The vision here is for a system of food production driven by small producers,
who will produce primarily for human consumption and with greater environmental
consideration and responsibility. Currently, small producers, suh as the campesinos ,
are facing great hallenges not only to produce foodstufs for the market but also for
sustaining their own families.
The climatic conditions in Santiago del Estero are not favourable for many crops
but this is primarily due to scarcity of water. Investments in water infrastructure
followed by adequate management would allow many campesinos to increase both
the area of cultivation and their productivity. Equally, availability of small-scale ma-
hinery would further contribute to productivity. However, investments in rural in-
frastructure often raise land values. For this reason many communities struggle for
communal land titles that would make it extremely difficult for resourceful buyers to
purhase land once transferable titles are issued. Under suh conditions campesinos
could prosper and contribute even more to food security.
Conclusion
As the case study of Santiago del Estero demonstrates, soyization is only the latest
hapter in an ongoing struggle among small-scale land managers for security of land
tenure and the capacity to produce diverse foods as an element of food sovereignty
in the Southern Cone. The historical marginalization of campesinos has established
the conditions under whih not only families but entire communities are forced of
their land and the surrounding native forest is cleared. Due to the domestic focus on
the ahievements of modernization and the focus of international concern on, spe-