The power politics of agro-extractivism for climate stewardship

In this chapter, the authors elaborate on the relatively new notion of agro-extractivism with an analysis of its associated development and resistance dynamics in the context of Bolivia and Paraguay. First, they discuss the currently dominant model for agricultural development, the so-called CEPA model (Corporate-led, External-input, Plantation Agriculture), which is characterised by corporate control over the value chain, a dependence on externally produced (usually industrial) inputs, and on large-scale plantation monocultures. The CEPA model involves the extraction of value, energy, and materials from human and non-human nature, which leads the authors to propose a seven-pronged analytical tool for analysing the dynamic features of agricultural extractivism. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to an analysis of these agro-extractive dynamics as they relate to the soy economy constructed in recent years in the southern cone countries—in this case in the context of Bolivia and Paraguay.