Geophysical factors and economic determinism. Some keys to tracing the origins of agro exports in Latin America

Abstract

In this paper, we seek to analyze some correlations between the international division of labor, power, and the configuration of agrarian space in Latin America, using as our main theoretical reference the Food Regimes approach, conceived by Harriet Friedmann and Philip McMichael. The starting point is that, although the social division of labor obeys historical factors, it has been naturalized and masked by fetishes that alienate us from space, commodities, and other information flows, not perceived as social relations, but as mere objects. Regarding the international division of agricultural labor, we will review some links between climatic zones and the bifurcation of the diet (class diet) in this region, for this, we will introduce the concept of exoticization of intertropical agriculture, in which we identify two interdependent meanings: the first associated with the Colombian exchange and consequent introduction of foreign animal and plant species, and which spanned the entire globe as modern society arose, however, the second meaning is circumscribed to the intertropical zone of the planet, and can be defined as the construction of an idea of inferiority and complementarity of the crops of the said climatic zone in relation to those of temperate zones; again, our focus will be on Latin American countries: Central America, the Caribbean, and Northern South America.

Keywords

• divisão internacional do trabalho agrícola
• poder
• abordagem dos regimes alimentares
• bifurcação da dieta
• américa latina