Towards an Extractivist Bioeconomy? The Risk of Deepening Agrarian Extractivism When Promoting Bioeconomy in Argentina

Bioeconomy is a concept that has been developed in the OECD and is prominently discussed in Europe and industrialized countries. Over the years, Argentina has begun appropriating and developing its own interpretation of the concept, which has a clear agro-industrial and bio-technological focus. In Argentina, bioeconomy is framed as further intensification of agro-industrial production—including GMOs and the immense use of pesticides—combined with strengthening industrial upgrading. The same people and institutions that have supported soybean expansion over the last decades also advocate bioeconomy. Nevertheless, Argentina’s agricultural policies have been contested for several years; this particularly applies to the expansion of soybean monocultures and the related use of pesticides. Referring to the debate on agrarian extractivism, this chapter argues that Argentina’s focus within the bioeconomy debate risks deepening the extractivist tendency within the dominant form of agriculture and continuing the exclusion of peasants, indigenous groups and environmental concerns.