Food sovereignty and collective empowerment: the Movimiento Nacional Campesino Indigena (MNCI) in Argentina

Abstract

In Latin America, the push for food sovereignty has gained significant traction within the broader "Pink Tide" movement, with Argentina standing out as a prominent example in the period 2003-2015. In this context, the present article focuses on the case of Argentina to explore how the mobilization for food sovereignty can foster "collective empowerment", based on a review of the literature on Argentina's neoliberal agrarian restructuring and its challenge by agrarian movements, with a special focus on the National Peasant and Indigenous Movement (MNCI), the country's largest food sovereignty movement. Certainly, the intensive commodification of land has catalyzed the growth of peasant movements beyond local mobilization. In the MNCI’s case, the assertion of indigenous and peasant identity becomes a strategic element, establishing an organizational language that fosters group conviction and keeps mass emotions alive through an anti-capitalist discourse directed at the neoliberal food regime. Furthermore, increased resources, dialogues with the state, and opportunities for mobilization have strengthened the movement's base. Finally, the MNCI implements a deliberative leadership rooted in the grassroots and organically connected with provincial and national levels, generating a certain level of cohesion and coordination. This leadership is reinforced by pedagogical initiatives that revitalize indigenous-peasant culture, promote horizontal politics, enhance collective self-esteem, and foster new alliances.