ABSTRACT

This paper addresses whiteness in environmental imaginaries underpinning mainstream agroecology activism in Argentina. It examines the cultural politics of race and nature articulated by intellectual leaders during the period of nation-making, and by contemporary agroecology advocates who are preoccupied to define appropriate human-land relations. Empirically, it mostly focuses on an activist organization that has been reimagining alternatives to the dominant agro-export economy in an agricultural hub in central Argentina. Paradoxically, new territorial configurations to regulate pesticide drift from herbicide resistant (HR) soy fields leave fresh vegetable producers outside environmental protection zones. I argue that by neglecting the exposure to toxicity of farmworkers who fall outside dominant ethno-racial identifications, mainstream agroecology advocates endorse a double standard in food production. The article suggests that there is a need for deeper attention to the ways in which the practices of racialization work in and through ideas of ‘proper environmental relations’ in progressive agendas for socio-environmental change.

摘要

本文探讨了支撑阿根廷主流农业生态行动主义的环境想象中的白度。它考察了国家建设时期知识分子领袖所阐述的种族和自然文化政治，以及全神贯注于定义适当的人地关系的当代农业生态学倡导者。从经验上看，它主要关注一个激进组织，该组织一直在重新构想阿根廷中部农业中心占主导地位的农产品出口经济的替代方案。矛盾的是，新的区域配置来规范抗除草剂 (HR) 大豆田中的农药漂移，却将新鲜蔬菜生产商留在了环境保护区之外。我认为，通过忽略不属于主流民族种族认同的农场工人接触毒性，主流生态农业倡导者支持粮食生产的双重标准。这篇文章表明，有必要更深入地关注种族化实践在社会环境变化的进步议程中通过“适当的环境关系”的思想发挥作用的方式。