Home Institution

University of San Francisco

Publication Date

Spring 2015

Program Name

Argentina: Social Movements and Human Rights

Abstract

In regards to human rights and environmental rights, there is a paradox that exists between the rhetoric and actions of the government regarding agribusiness. While the Argentine government increasingly connects their rhetoric to the promotion of these rights, they have allowed transnational corporations to modify the agricultural model in a way that exploits the land for the production of commodities. People living in fields where biotechnology is operated and urban-industrial zones where the commodities are exported report health problems and deaths in light of the corporations’ presence. Confronted with the degradation of their fundamental rights, those whose lives are being degraded as a result of the presence of agribusiness have begun mobilizing with increased frequency. However, social mobilization strategies become even more complicated when the coupled with the fact that the agro-companies financial sustain the same people whom they are killing. This investigation examines emerging grassroots mobilization apparent in the “Industrial Belt” of Gran Rosario, Argentina to better understand dynamic between the respect of human rights within a vicious capitalistic context. I find that even though there exist a range of social actors focusing on different aims, their financial dependency on the agro-model has prompted them to frame their discourse to highlight the importance of human life and dignified work.

Disciplines

Agribusiness | Agricultural and Resource Economics | Family, Life Course, and Society | Growth and Development | Inequality and Stratification | International Business | Place and Environment | Politics and Social Change

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