Industrial agriculture, a product of the U.S., is only partly about supplying food. For a long time it has been structured to meet the problem of excess capital accumulation.   So it's a "capital-intensive" system--meaning you have to sink a lot of capital into it to make it work. Lots of expensive and complex machinery, brand name chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and recently, patented seeds. This also allows the banking and finance sectors to have a piece since no farmer, large or small, handles this kind of operation without extensive loans.

At an agricultural trade fair like ExpoChacra in Argentina, farm machinery is the most eye-catching display, baffling and almost fantastical to the outsider, perhaps anxiety producing to the farmer who can never quite afford the equipment that ensures success. But the exhibits reflect the role of auto manufacturers, tire companies and banks as much as they do the businesses of seeds, chemicals and products marketed to the agricultural sector alone.

Why Argentina?

To anyone following the adventures of the WTO, it becomes evident that the U.S. uses strong-arm tactics in trade agreements to export its agricultural system. After the breakdown of the 2003 WTO ministerial in Cancun, this mission continues to be realized through bilateral trade agreements. I wanted to find out more about what happens when the U.S. system is rapidly integrated into another country's economy. Argentina is one of the globe's biggest food producers, and their feverish embrace of GM (genetically modified) soy is unmatched anywhere. The promotion of GM agriculture is an efficient package for the promotion of American industrial agriculture, including concentrated ownership through patents and intellectuals property.