The emergence of microbiological inputs and the challenging laboratorisation of agriculture: lessons from Brazil and Mexico

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2024-08-21

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Springer Nature

Abstract

In this article, we analyse the tensions associated with the emergence of microorganism-based agricultural inputs in two Latin American countries, Brazil and Mexico. More specifically, we examine the ways in which these technologies, which are based on the use of living organisms, leave public microbiology research laboratories and are further developed by manufacturers or farmers. To this end, we draw on the concept of the ‘laboratorisation’ of society, part of the actor-network theory. We show that the emergence of these technologies is currently facing a number of challenges, due to the risks associated with their biological nature and the difficulty involved in establishing production processes as reliable as those used in reference laboratories. Whether produced by companies or on farms, the quality and safety of the practices and of these products are the subject of debate, as well as the focus of scientific, economic and political scrutiny. These microbiological inputs are evidence for the transformation of the relationship between science, industry, users and politics that is taking place around the emergence of alternatives to synthetic chemical inputs in agriculture, and more broadly, about the use of microbiological resources in agriculture.

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© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Springer Nature. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Version of Scholarly Record of this Article is published in Agriculture and Human Values, 2024, available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-024-10614-y

Keywords

agricultural inputs, microorganisms, innovation, technology, laboratorisation, Latin America

Citation

Goulet, F., Fonteyne, S., Ridaura, S.L. et al. The emergence of microbiological inputs and the challenging laboratorisation of agriculture: lessons from Brazil and Mexico. Agric Hum Values (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10614-y

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14096/483

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Agricultural Sciences