Soybeans and Power
Genetically Modified Crops, Environmental Politics, and Social Movements in Argentina
Pablo Lapegna
Reviews and Awards
2017 Best Book Award, Sociology of Development Section of the American Sociological Association
"Pablo Lapegna's book, Soybeans and Power: Genetically Modified Crops, Environmental Politics, and Social Movements in Argentina, offers a deeply theorized and beautifully written ethnography of how peasants and their organizations in the northern part of Argentina have experienced, understood, mobilized against, and ultimately accommodated themselves to the arrival of transgenic soy... Ultimately, Soy and Power is an excellent and intellectually stimulating read." -- Rachel Schurman, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, American Journal of Sociology
"This is a brilliant book, one sorely needed. Lapegna's beautifully-written ethnography of the contested politics of GM crops in Argentina is critical in the best sense of the word - a vital contribution to a debate that is often rendered in black and white."-Wendy Wolford, Cornell University
"Pablo Lapegna's ethnographic research in a province of Argentina will interest anyone concerned about the global struggle over the spread of genetically modified crops. He tells a fascinating story, one without defenseless victims or stoic heroes. It is also a story that will especially appeal to anyone interested in understanding how social movements work, both how they mobilize and how they demobilize, how they challenge powerful elites and how they accommodate and adapt themselves to a world they cannot fully control."-Jeff Goodwin, New York University
"...a magisterial contribution to social movement theory and to the critical history of commodities pioneered by Sidney Mintz in his classic study of sugar. The dramatic spread of GM soy in South America brought widespread agrochemical contamination and also generated resistance in the countryside. Lapegna's seamless analysis integrates key dimensions of this story, from the technological innovations behind GM crops and troubling issues of corporate power to why and how peasants both mobilize to confront this new threat and at times eschew mobilization in favor of patronage politics."-Marc Edelman, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
