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Structural Vulnerability and Toxicity - Experiences in the Uruguayan Soybeanisation Process

Victoria Evia
Plantations are understood as examples of ‘modular simplifications’ in ‘patchy Anthropocene’ landscapes, where attempts to reduce diversity may have feral social and ecological effects as diseases and toxins spread. In Uruguay soybean expansionist processes correlate with an increased use of pesticides. Based on an ethnographic study (2016–2018) carried out in the main Uruguayan agricultural region, this Research Article analyses the experiences of toxicity among agricultural workers and rural inhabitants in the soybeanisation context.
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Victoria Evia holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS, Mexico), where she specialised in Anthropology of Health and Illness. She is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Anthropological Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences at the University of the Republic of Uruguay, where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses and conducts research.

Learning points

  • What are the relationships between agribusiness plantations, the loss of biodiversity, and toxicity that this author highlights?
  • What does the author mean by “toxic suffering” in the context of the transgenic soybeans crops in Uruguay?
  • Why would the “soybeanisation” of Uruguay be a good example of the patchy Anthropocene’s feral effects on human and non-human health?
  • What are the occupational health effects among agricultural workers and rural inhabitants of the soybeanisation of Uruguay?

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