Toxic certainties and elusive evidence: The gendered chemical geographies of glyphosate in Colombia

Keywords: Glyphosate, chemical geographies, gender, feminist political ecology, Colombia
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 57

Abstract

The effects of glyphosate use in Colombia, both as war weapon and agricultural input, have proven to be devastating for entire ecologies and communities. Despite mounting reports of the relation between glyphosate and disease, environmental destruction and death all over the country, official discourse does not count them as evidence. This illegibility and illegitimacy is only heightened when it comes to gendered forms of suffering, harm and violence associated to glyphosate’s use and its place within a vicious agrarian model. In this presentation, drawing from preliminary work with organizations opposing what Francia Márquez calls “the imposition of a politics of death”, we explore glyphosate’s chemical geographies in the country and their conditions of possibility. From a feminist political ecology perspective, we suggest three entry points to address the gendered character of glyphosate’s chemical geographies: Reproductive health, care and food sovereignty.