Requalifying markets of basic food commodities? An examination of the Round Table on Responsible Soy's implementation in Córdoba, Argentina

STARICCO, JUAN IGNACIO

Journal of Rural Studies

Elsevier

Año: 2021

0743-0167

he Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) is an international multi-stakeholder initiative whose certification scheme seeks to promote more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable practices in the soy sector. This paper offers an in-depth case study of Argentina´s soy producing province of Córdoba in order examine RTRS′ attempt to requalify soy, a basic food commodity for which discussions around quality have traditionally tended to be marginal. Guided by a regulationist analytical framework, the empirical analysis shows that RTRS aims at producing some modest transformations in the production practices of the soy sector. However, due to this initiative´s unsuccessful attempt to guarantee demand and significant price premiums for producers, the possibility of achieving such modest transformations becomes compromised. As a consequence, the case of RTRS makes visible some of the challenges and difficulties that emerge when markets of basic food commodities attempt to