Resisting ruination: resource sovereignties and socioecological struggles in Cotopaxi, Ecuador

Abstract

This paper examines coordinated community responses to the deployment of controversial technologies by broccoli plantations in Cotopaxi province in Ecuador's central highlands. It studies the influence of enduring structures of inequality that delimit the distribution of land and water in the region -the effects of what Ann Stoler calls imperial debris within ongoing processes of ruination. It considers the socioecological struggles mobilized to address these processes in terms of resource sovereignties -shifting assemblages of rights and relations between land, identity, ecology and social justice. The technologies in question -acetylene 'cannons' designed to disperse clouds and thus prevent damage to crops from hailstones -were locally disruptive to weather patterns, agriculture, and everyday life. In collaboration with the regional offices of Ecuador's national Indigenous Movement, affected communities from across the region campaigned -in the streets and in the courts, and ultimately with some success -to outlaw these technologies of appropriation. Although the initial case was settled in 2010, new suspicions emerged in early 2016 as some community members again blamed the plantations for an unseasonable drought, alleging they had found new technologies to use in the destruction of clouds. Reading the cannons as forms of rubble (Gordillo 2014) focuses our attention on how and why these abandoned technologies re-emerged as a source of conflict in the region and exerted unexpected influence on responses to drought conditions. I suggest these claims, counterclaims and subsequent struggles not only reveal the persistence of processes of ruination and of resistance to them but also expose the fragility within apparently immutable political systems and destructive landscapes. Key words: environment, Ecuador, technology, ruination, rubble, water RésuméCet article examine les réponses coordonnées de la communauté au déploiement de technologies controversées par les plantations de brocolis dans la province de Cotopaxi dans les hauts plateaux centraux de l'Équateur. Il étudie l'influence des structures durables d'inégalité qui délimitent la répartition de la terre et de l'eau dans la région -les effets de ce que Ann Stoler appelle «débris impériaux» dans les processus de ruine en cours. Il considère les luttes socioéconomiques mobilisées pour aborder ces processus en termes de souveraineté des ressources -mouvements d'associations de droits et de relations entre la terre, l'identité, l'écologie et la justice sociale. Les technologies en question -les canons d'acétylène conçus pour disperser les nuages et ainsi prévenir les dommages causés aux récoltes par les grêlons -perturbent localement les habitudes météorologiques, l'agriculture et la vie quotidienne. En collaboration avec les bureaux régionaux du Mouvement indigène national de l'Équateur, les communautés touchées de toute la région ont fait campagne -dans les rues et dans les tribunaux, et finalement avec un certain succès -pour interdire ces technologie...

On the destructive production of food: some lessons from South America

“…Further, Gerhardt also shows that the salmon industry's intrinsic propensity to contaminate local waters with pathogens (generated by the farms' high density of highly medicated fish), and therefore its tendency to undermine its own conditions of reproduction, has made many of these companies move operations south into less densely farmed areas, thereby expanding the reach of their capacity to generate what he rightly calls "ecological rubble." In turn, Partridge's (2017) account about the conflict between for-export broccoli plantations and local peasant communities in Ecuador adds another fascinating dimension to the expansive spatiality of destructive food production: the fact that broccoli plantations have expanded their power into the atmosphere through the use of "anti-hailstone cannons." Residents blame the use of this technology for having disrupted and diverted rainstorm patterns in surrounding areas, as part of an overall sense that elites cultivating broccoli for first-world consumers are appropriating local sources of water for irrigation and in general undermining local forms of sovereignty.…”

“…The progressive social policies implemented by these governments, as documented by Hoelle and Partridge in the cases of Brazil (under presidents Lula and Dilma) and Ecuador (under president Correa) respectively, certainly improved people's standard of living and empowered some forms of grassroots participation, either through the expansion of social programs and basic infrastructures in the case of Amazonia or through the introduction of constitutional changes in Ecuador and Bolivia about the right to collective wellbeing (El Buen Vivir, or Harmonious Living). As shown by Partridge (2017), these are rights that residents in Ecuador have explicitly drawn from to oppose the elites running broccoli plantations. Yet it is also well-known that these same governments have aggressively encouraged highly destructive mining, oil, and agribusiness operations by multinational corporations, often relying on the violent repression of protests by local communities.…”

Nitrogen, science, and environmental change: the politics of the Green Revolution in Chile and the global nitrogen challenge

“…Since then, the term has been used globally to describe technological improvements-in seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, along with enhancements in irrigation and other mechanization processes-developed to increase agricultural production (Cullather 2004(Cullather , 2010Gupta 1998;Olsson 2012;Pearse 1980;Perkins 1997;Shiva 1991). Scholars credit this process of agricultural change with enabling export-oriented agriculture, such as that found in Ecuador (Partridge 2017) or Brazil (Hoelle 2017), and it has served as a model for the so-called "Blue Revolution" in aquaculture, as practiced in Chile (Gerhart 2017). Scholars, farmers, and the general public generally agree that N fertilizers have been critical in feeding and clothing the increasing world population during the 20 th century (Bown 2005;Brown 1999;Cushman 2013;Perkins 1997;Smil 2001), and that they will remain important in the 21 st century (Galloway 2001(Galloway , 2004Mosier and Freney 2004).…”

Production/destruction in Latin America

“…For example, Chile recently created a Council of Innovation for Economic Competitiveness which recommended focusing research spending on five strategic clusters (CNIC 2007), and some policymakers support transferring the country's science funding agency from the Ministry of Education to the Economy. 3 Mexico's recent turn to nanotechnology is motivated by the same goals (Delgado 2008). The World Bank has promoted similar policies through its "knowledge for development" program, and lithium industrialization policies in Bolivia include a significant innovation component (Revette 2017).…”

“…Bear (2015) likewise points to the role of "austerity technologies" in implementing and naturalizing austerity capitalism, with all its unequal and unjust effects. And in this Section, examples include water distribution systems that favor large farmers over indigenous peasants that are rationalized as technologically superior (Partridge 2017), as well as the science and technology-intensive Green Revolution (San Martín 2017).…”