Kregg Hetherington

Translator’s Note: This text is at least partially a translation of a translation. According to its author, parts of this chapter were originally published in English in 2009 and 2011, while another part was published in Spanish sometime before 2014. However, he also indicates that there have been revisions to the whole text since then, meaning even if I were able to track down the original English parts, they would potentially need updating to conform to this version. I’ve instead translated the entire chapter from scratch.

Just as in a large part of Latin America, the rural situation in Paraguay since the 1980s is characterized by an important re-concentration of land in the hands of a few owners. In economic terms, the re-concentration is propelled primarily by the tremendous increase in the production of soy and grain, the mechanization of which was facilitated by the introduction of transgenic varieties in the 1990s, with these now representing the most important product of the Paraguayan economy (only meat is their only real rival, and it too contributes to land concentration).