COVID-19 in Argentine agriculture: Global threats, local contradictions and possible responses

Abstract

We live one of the greatest global threats on record. But we still don't know how far its effects will reach, nor exactly where its causes come from. One of the most convincing hypotheses links the origin of this new generation of viruses to three factors: the methods of animal confinement, which massify new strains of viruses and creates resistances to antibiotics; the put into production of virgin areas of the world, which also put us in contact with newer and more aggressive strains of natural viruses; and the speed with which this is put into global circulation as a result of flows of people and goods on a scale and at a speed never before seen. If this is true, capitalist agriculture could be the "missing link" of the COVID-19. In that case, our main threat would be a type of relationship with nature that, far from being guided by some kind of harmonious planning of all these variables, is driven by an uncoordinated multiplicity of short-term economic interests.