Linking the defence of territory to food sovereignty: Peasant environmentalisms and extractive neoliberalism in Guatemala

Abstract

AbstractFood sovereignty and the defence of territory are increasingly influential environmental paradigms for rural social movements in opposition to free market hegemony in the global south. These paradigms propose radical alternatives to growth based economies, unequal property regimes, and the absolute territorial sovereignty of nation states. Drawing on fieldwork in rural Guatemala with progressive NGOs and social movements, this essay describes these tendencies' origins and characteristic discourses and demands, examines their links to traditional peasant politics and indigenous rights movements, and assesses their divergences, limitations, and possibilities for synergy. Building on Joan Martínez‐Alier' conception of the “environmentalism of the poor”, I show how these “peasant environmentalisms” converge and reinforce one another while responding to different aspects of neoliberalism's threat to lives, livelihoods, and territories during Guatemala's conflict‐ridden transition to neoliberal democracy. I also discuss how their convergence has expanded thinking about territorial alternatives and suggest that holding these paradigms in tension is vital to build broad coalitions among a fragmented peasantry. I propose food sovereignty as the economic model of the plurinational state.