Senses in dispute. The process of institutionalization of agroecology in Argentina

Abstract

The emergence of agroecology can be traced both in the actions of social organizations and movements and of state and academic institutions. This article reflects on its institutionalization in Argentina, based on the analysis of its introduction in Public Policies promoted by the State and in activities promoted by national universities. Starting from the premise that in these processes there is a dispute of meanings, qualitative techniques of data production and analysis are used to identify and understand the meaning that different social, academic and political actors attribute to it. The institutionalization processes of agroecology in the country result from a double movement of confluence. On the one hand, they derive from the pressure and struggle that different organizations, -in alliance with academic sectors and / or linked to the state, critical of the conventional mode of production-, have been developing since the mid-1990s against the agri-food system current. On the other hand, they begin in the face of the increase in social conflict derived from the environmental consequences of said system on human health, which have strained the hegemonic form of production and broadened the spectrum of participation. Among the conclusions, we highlight that agroecology has been arousing more and more interest in different social and political actors, including those organized and unorganized consumers who, in the search for food 'without poisons', stress the way in which they are produced and commercialized foods.