No podemos olvidarnos del monte

Territorial precariousness and food insecurity in the Chaco salteño

Abstract

The contribution critically reflects on the link between territorial and food insecurity starting from a long-term ethnographic research in the Argentine Chaco region, one of the most deforested areas in the world for the production of agro-industrial commodities destined to Asian and European markets. Based specifically on the data collected in the province of Salta, I analyze how the expansion of the agricultural frontier, destroying el monte (the forest), prevents the access and food production of indigenous societies (with a majority Wichí) of the area under consideration. Those groups has become the privileged target of numerous welfare policies, aimed at resolving the “food crisis” by acting on the symptoms – the lack of food – instead of on the causes – territorial precariousness and environmental deterioration.