A Twenty-first Century Socialist Agriculture? Land Reform, Food Sovereignty and Peasant–State Dynamics in Venezuela

Abstract

This article examines state-peasantry dynamics in Venezuela in regards to the formation, implementation and contestation of land reform and agricultural policy. As a self-proclaimed socialist state, the Chavez Government has framed its agrarian policies as a reordering of the food system that prioritizes land redistri- bution, smallholder agriculture, and sustainable forms of production. Yet, despite an apparently positive policy context, rural dynamics have been characterized by conflict over land and a geographically and temporally uneven process of policy implementation in rural areas. This article examines how peasants have engaged with Venezuela's land re- form processes and their role in shaping the character and scope of state policy. In particular, it investigates the dynamics of technically illegal peasant occupation of estates in a seemingly 'pro-peasant' policy context. Peasant-state dynamics are analysed through the lens of food sovereignty, where land reform processes and struggles represent contestation over conceptions of what constitutes 'appropri- ate' production in a 'socialist' agricultural regime.