Editing Monoculture (section)

== Agro-extractivism ==
Agro-extractivism is a form of [[extractivism]] in which foreign territorial, political, and economical dominance over agriculture is motivated by the large-scale production and exportation of agricultural commodities, often in the form of monocultures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fernandes |first=Bernardo Mançano |title=LAND GRABBING FOR AGRO-EXTRACTIVISM IN THE SECOND NEOLIBERAL PHASE IN BRAZIL/Estrangeirização da terra para o agroextrativismo na segunda fase neoliberal no Brasil/ El acaparamiento de tierras para el agro-extractivismo en la segunda fase neoliberal en Brasil |url=https://revista.fct.unesp.br/index.php/nera/article/view/6612 |journal=Revista Nera |date=2019 |language=pt |issue=50 |pages=208–238 |doi=10.47946/rnera.v0i50.6612 |issn=1806-6755|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Several monocultures in the Global South, such as sugar and coffee, were first planted in the 1800s following European colonization.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Beckles |first=Hilary McD. |date=1991 |title=Review of Cuban Rural Society in the Nineteenth Century: The Social and Economic History of Monoculture in Matanzas., by L. W. Bergad. |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=982–984|doi=10.1017/S0022050700040353 }}</ref> These plantations used slave labor,<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last1=Veltmeyer |first1=Henry |last2=Ezquerro-Cañete |first2=Arturo |date=2023-07-29 |title=Agro-extractivism |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2023.2218802 |journal=The Journal of Peasant Studies |language=en |volume=50 |issue=5 |pages=1673–1686 |doi=10.1080/03066150.2023.2218802 |issn=0306-6150}}</ref> setting a precedent for agriculture being a field dominated by foreign entities in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. This social framework has shaped the oppression of Black people and smaller-scale farmers in the face of present-day land acquisition for monocultural use.<ref name=":12" />

The large-scale establishment of monocultures in the tropics has led to hindrance of local small-scale farms and indigenous land rights in the forms of reduced [[food sovereignty]],<ref name=":13" /> [[food security]], land and water access,<ref name=":7" /> and hunting.<ref name=":14">{{Cite journal |last=Wesz Junior |first=Valdemar João |date=2021 |title=Soybean production in Paraguay: Agribusiness, economic change and agrarian transformations |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joac.12436 |journal=Journal of Agrarian Change |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=317–340 |doi=10.1111/joac.12436 |issn=1471-0358}}</ref> Land privatization and pressure for monocultural expansion by larger companies takes different forms: silent evictions,<ref name=":7" /> violence,<ref name=":14" /> and reverse leasing arrangements.<ref name=":8" /> Introduction to global trade makes small-scale farmers vulnerable to international demand, prices, and variations in climate affecting crop production.<ref name=":14" /> Farmers who make contracts or take out loans with large corporations can face debt and loss of land if they fail to meet certain crop yields or profit.<ref name=":14" />

Monocultures are an aspect of agro-extractivism on account of high percentages of the produced crop being exported for processing and marketing by large transnational corporations, often in developed countries.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":8" /> For instance, following the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA), agave production increased three-fold in Mexico from 1995 to 2019 due to foreign consumption, specifically by the United States.<ref name=":8" /> Pararguay sees similar demands with soy crops, exporting the majority of production without nutrients returning to native soil.<ref name=":13" /> More than 46 million hectares of soy has been planted across South America while over half a million hectares of land are being deforested annually to make land for cultivation.<ref name=":11" /> Some international companies relevant in the field of agro-extractivist monocultures are [[Syngenta]] and [[Bayer]] (biotech), Los Grobo, CRESUD, El Tejar, and [[Maggi]] (landowners), and [[Cargill]], ADM, and Bunge (grain and seed providers).<ref name=":11" />