Peronism, agriculture and environment.

State initiatives in the face of a problematic inheritance: clearing, soil erosion and agricultural crisis in central Argentina (1938-1955)

Abstract

The book Peronism, agriculture and environment written by Federico Martocci is part of the collection "La Argentina Peronista", aimed at a diverse audience. This work addresses the state initiatives implemented during the first Peronist government to promote soil conservation and the protection of the caldenal in the center of the country. Thus, it brings light to a problem linked to the erosive process that had been identified since the 1930s. As the author states at the beginning, this dimension has not lost validity and shows this in a lucid connection with contemporary processes, such as the truncated project to create the El Caldenal National Park in 2022. The temporary cut takes up the first state responses to the erosive agroclimatic crisis that acquired notable intensity at the end of 1930, until the completion of projects that took place during Peronism, which It ends in 1955, with the civil-military coup that overthrew Perón. This productive and environmental reality presented is far from that generalized imaginary that links Argentina as the “breadbasket of the world” and puts us in front of much more complex events that qualify those often idealized rural images.