Walking Archives

“Who are children of genetically modified soy production? What disowned bastards are produced by the hybridization of agri-business, biotech, capital, and culture? To answer these questions the Archivo Caminante (Walking Archive) embarks on a trip through the opaque and strange world of genetically modified soya plants in Argentina in search of its inhabitants, forms and structures, languages and narratives: the forces that swirl around the soya rhizome. In the style of Gulliver’s Travels it makes visible some of the routes in the soya chain giving shape to a new international division of labor food policy in global semiocapitalism. More than 50% of the cultivated lands in Argentina are for soya production, with 90% of that area covered by Monsanto products and representatives. This agrarian system and its results are only possible using Roundup herbicide, the brand name of Monsanto’s glyphosate. The rhizome formed by soya production dives deep into the Argentine society: it organizes new political alliances, and, above all, modifies the social and cultural structure of the country. Is there a transgenic culture inside semiocapitalism? Does the soyazation process modify culture and society, or is it the other way around, and soyazation is only possible in a transgenic culture?