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2268/109284

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Seed bioeconomy: transgenic soybean fitomejkers in Argentina

Abstract

The present work aims to analyse the formation of the transgenic soybean market in Argentina from the perspective of the new sociology of science (Frickel and Moore 2006) and the commercialisation of science (Mirowsky and Sent 2008), in dialogue with the theory of global systems (Hall 2000; Chase-Dunn 2006). These frameworks can be considered compatible and mutually illuminating for analysing scientific and technological developments in peripheral and semi-peripheral countries in recent decades, in so far as they make it possible to describe relationships and mechanisms of power between social sectors and countries, at times when developments are mainly, but not exclusively, brought to the market by transnational companies. Argentina was the second country to adopt transgenic crops, behind the United States and ahead of Canada, for its rapid adoption of glyphosate-tolerant soya, which was approved in 1996. A set of exceptional circumstances favoured this incorporation: the fact that the glyphosate patent had already expired; the existence of a regulatory system for agricultural biotechnology, set up five years earlier; the task of promoting this technology by the companies involved, associations of producers and extension holders of the public system; simultaneous incorporation of direct seed technology; increased international demand for soybeans, among others. Another key element was the inability of the transnational Monsanto to patent the event in the country. This led to the low price of this technology on the Argentinian market compared to conventional seed and transgenic soybean seed on the North American market. It also facilitated the participation of other companies; it is expected to be transnational but also national. Among transnational players, the role of a phitomexortor, whose contributions are considered by many close to the process, to be of vital importance for the early incorporation of technology was highlighted. This had several consequences: in addition to the rapid incorporation of the soya germoplasma event adapted to local conditions, a distribution of the income resulting from this development which favoured local producers, and the strengthening of the competitiveness of Argentinian production on the international soybean market. In our analysis, the formation of the transgenic soybean market in Argentina is a revealing case in relation to the mechanisms, paradoxes and contradictions that arise in peripheral and semi-peripheral countries at the new stage in the commercialisation of science and the bioeconomy.

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