{"id":454,"date":"2020-07-15T09:48:20","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T08:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/?p=454"},"modified":"2020-07-15T10:30:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T09:30:11","slug":"reflection-upon-neoliberal-rural-chile-social-upheaval-a-referendum-and-the-adoption-of-a-profitable-niche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/2020\/07\/15\/reflection-upon-neoliberal-rural-chile-social-upheaval-a-referendum-and-the-adoption-of-a-profitable-niche\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflection upon neoliberal rural Chile: Social upheaval, a referendum and the adoption of a profitable niche."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Carlos Bolomey Cordova is a\nsecond-year PhD student at the CRE. He is researching the livelihoods of\nagricultural producers in southern Chile, and here, discusses how a hardcore\nneoliberal logic has shaped agriculture in the region in recent decades. He\nalso reflects on how this relates to Chile\u2019s upcoming constitutional\nreferendum. &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Social upheaval and a referendum <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Towards the end of 2019, people\nacross Chile took to the streets to protest the country&#8217;s hardcore neoliberal\nsocioeconomic model \u2013 imposed by Augusto Pinochet&#8217;s dictatorship (1973 \u2013 1990)\nand further consolidated by successive democratic governments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chile&#8217;s neoliberal rationale is\nreflected in the liberal free trade agreements it has signed with most of the\nworld, as well as in an array of reforms that undermined the country&#8217;s social\nfabric. The latter have included the abandonment of both public education and\npublic health, and the privatisation of natural assets such as water and copper.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Chile embraced the global market, it became one of the most developed countries in Latin America. However, despite having the region&#8217;s second largest per-capita GDP, Chile also has staggering levels of inequality. This has been one of the primary drivers for the recent protests, during which many Chilean citizens have called for dignity and social justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200206_143906430-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"458\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/?attachment_id=458\" class=\"wp-image-458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200206_143906430-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200206_143906430-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption>Protest art in downtown Santiago<br><em>Photo credit:<\/em> Carlos Bolomey Cordova<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200206_1438356621-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"461\" data-link=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/?attachment_id=461\" class=\"wp-image-461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200206_1438356621-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200206_1438356621-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption>Protest art in downtown Santiago<br><em>Photo credit: <\/em>Carlos Bolomey Cordova<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to these protests, politicians\nhave called a referendum on Chile&#8217;s 1980 Pinochet-era constitution, set to be\nheld later this year. This brings the possibility of not only developing a democratically-written\nconstitution, but also of setting boundaries to a fiercely neoliberal model under\nwhich private property is the central right and state interference in social\nlife is kept to a bare minimum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">From grain to fruit: Neoliberalism\nand agriculture in southern Chile<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Last winter I travelled from\nNewcastle to the \u2018La Araucania\u2019 region in southern Chile to undertake my\nfieldwork. Here I witnessed first-hand some of the contradictions underpinning the\nneoliberal rationale regarding agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When La Araucania was incorporated\ninto the Chilean national territory in the 1880s, following a military\noccupation of Indigenous land, it became a region devoted to cereal production.\nHowever, farmers across the region are now switching their crops to fruits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This transition has occurred because of two complementary drivers. Firstly, climate change has been expanding the temperate weather of central Chile southwards, making southern regions warmer and therefore more hospitable to fruit production. Secondly, public policies have encouraged farmers to adopt high-value crops such as berries, primarily for export. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"568\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200225_1427374101-1-e1594802691344-1024x568.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200225_1427374101-1-e1594802691344-1024x568.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200225_1427374101-1-e1594802691344-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200225_1427374101-1-e1594802691344-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/IMG_20200225_1427374101-1-e1594802691344-500x277.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>A traditional smallholder field in which maize, beans and quinoa are all grown in the same plot. <em>Photo credit: <\/em>Carlos Bolomey Cordova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, many farmers have reaped the rewards of higher crop prices and access to export markets. They have been able to capitalise on Chile\u2019s numerous free trade agreements, as well as its geographical location, which makes it a counter-seasonal producer in relation to the northern hemisphere. Yet, not every farmer in the region has benefitted. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some farmers I spoke to at a\nlocal farmers\u2019 market have not been able to grow berries because they do not\nhave access to enough water to grow them (berry production typically requires significantly\nmore water than grain production). This is partly a legacy of Pinochet&#8217;s\nconstitution, which allowed for land and water to be considered as two separate\n\u2018goods\u2019. For instance, someone who owns property immediately next to a river\ncannot use water from that river if they have not bought the right to use it. The\nsame problem arises when farmers dig wells: they must register these under the \u2018Code\nof Water Management\u2019, an expensive and bureaucratic procedure. Hence, many small\nfarmers rely on rain water only, a system better-suited to grain production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If access to water is not fairly\ndistributed among farmers, those who are not able produce higher-profit crops,\nsuch as berries, often end up taking on work as wage labours or seasonal\nfarmworkers. Within Indigenous communities, people are increasingly moving away\nfrom a highly diversified subsistence farming to selling their labour in the\nthriving (monocropping) fruit industry. In addition to locking people into a\ncycle of precarious work, this presents a threat to local biodiversity and the\nsurvival of traditional crops, as biodiverse subsistence plots give way to\nmono-cropped fruit fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reliance on an export model compounds these issues, as producers become increasingly exposed to the fluctuations of the global market. While the government continues to implement schemes aimed at fostering the transition to an export-oriented mode of agricultural production, it disregards the fact that in the process, many producers\u2019 livelihoods have become more precarious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/DSC_0083-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/DSC_0083-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/DSC_0083-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/DSC_0083-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/files\/2020\/07\/DSC_0083-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>A government-issued poster encouraging farmers to grow flowers for export <br><em>Photo credit:<\/em> Carlos Bolomey Cordova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A large&nbsp;banner at the entrance of the local rural development office alludes to a previous pilot that sought to help producers to export&nbsp;flowers, illuminating the government\u2019s export-oriented focus. One official said to me that the main problem with the ministry of agriculture is that they are obsessed with export. He added: &#8220;the government supports many niche initiatives, but these niches often die\u2026 it happened the same with the strawberry growers of an indigenous community here&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is\ncrucial to reflect on how a neoliberal logic entails a specific way of\naddressing agriculture, generating a set of unintended outcomes that obscures\nthose who are left behind by development. The upcoming referendum will shine a\nlight on many of these issues. Some farmers see it as an opportunity to claim\nwater as a common good that cannot be privatised, and to cast doubt on the\nneoliberal model that has relegated many of them to poverty. Others in the\nrural elite will fight to retain their water rights and their access to an\nexport-oriented market. Certainly, this conversation will develop as the\nreferendum approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carlos Bolomey Cordova is a second-year PhD student at the CRE. He is researching the livelihoods of agricultural producers in southern Chile, and here, discusses how a hardcore neoliberal logic has shaped agriculture in the region in recent decades. He &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/2020\/07\/15\/reflection-upon-neoliberal-rural-chile-social-upheaval-a-referendum-and-the-adoption-of-a-profitable-niche\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/cre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}