‘Distance and durability’: food regime transition and agricultural trade restructuring in Latin America (1961–2020)

This paper examines the evolution of agricultural trade patterns in Latin America through the lens of food regime (FR) analysis, focusing on the transition from the second FR (1947–1972) to the present. It explores the role of key commodities within the complexes that Friedmann used to define the second FR and their influence on shaping trade dynamics. The focus is on the growing internationalisation of the meat sector, alongside the rise in the trade of staple grains and oilseeds, which have increasingly been traded for industrial purposes such as livestock feed. In her 1992 article published in Third World Quarterly, H. Friedmann noted the intensifying competition between the USA and the European Community, as well as the increasing competition from new agricultural countries (NACs) in feed crops starting in the 1970s. Her forecast about ‘distance and durability’ – the erosion of time- and place-specific characteristics in both agriculture and diets – has far surpassed expectations in the last three decades. This paper discusses how these dynamics have led to a fragmentation of the peripheral bloc, particularly in Latin America, where the consolidation of international agribusiness capital has deepened differentiation in agricultural trade patterns.