Agri-Food Systems and Constitutional Disputes in Latin America: Hegemony and Production of Rationality in Chile’s Constitutional Processes

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, various Latin American countries have held constitutional processes as mechanisms for channeling social conflicts, in which food systems and rural territories stood out as relevant topics. In Chile, the neoliberal agrarian policy of largely uncontrolled agricultural intensification that used to receive broad-based international praise is facing increasing criticism due to its negative impact on the stability of ecosystems and society. This growing dissatisfaction led food systems and agrarian policy to become a focal point of debate in the Chilean constitutional process starting in 2020. In this context, our research seeks to analyze the actors and positions taken on food systems and rural territories in this process, as well as their underlying power structures, which resulted in the constitutional proposal’s rejection in a plebiscite held in 2022. To this end, we review the Constitutional Convention debates and four political campaigns for the plebiscite. We assume that the reasons for the constitutional proposal’s rejection are not to be primarily found in the constitutional commission debate on agri-food systems. Rather, they are a consequence of communication strategies mobilizing values and meaning among many inhabitants of rural territories by targeting their identity. By connecting the theory of agri-food geographies and critical rural studies, we consider that these strategies relate to the emergence of new right-wing populisms opposed to political proposals seeking solutions to the current socio-ecological crisis.