From the Pink tide to the Ecoterritorial turn: Food sovereignty in the Republic of Uruguay

<jats:p>The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of the formation and implementation of food sovereignty policy in the Republic of Uruguay. Using the case study method and the principle of the unity of the logical and historical, the au-thor verified such structural characteristics of the functioning of the agricultural sector in Uruguay as “corporatization”, “forenization”, “offshorization” and “anonymization”. With the help of the method of historical and logical unity, the au-thor determined the role of social movements in the process of institutionalization of the idea of food sovereignty. The au-thor used the method of secondary data analysis and an insti-tutional approach to classify official documents, identify ex-ecutive authorities and describe programs that contribute to the implementation of the food sovereignty policy in the country. Based on the results of the study it was concluded that the current situation in the agri-food industry in Uruguay can be described as “Two-speed agriculture” which describ-ing the country’s historical coexistence of polarized classes and differential forms of agricultural production: export-oriented large agro-industrial producers and latifundists (on the one hand) and small farms aimed at domestic agroecolog-ical production (on the other hand). The author identified the key aspects of the state’s food sovereignty policy, noted its strengths and weaknesses, outlined the contours of further development. It is proved that 15% of the country’s popula-tion is starving, while domestic food products are actively exported from Uruguay. The verified dynamics of national food overproduction, synchronized with the increasing “Double burden of malnutrition”, actualized in Uruguay the project of ensuring “external” food security at the expense of “internal”. At the same time, the idealization of the agroexport model is facilitated by the institutional conditions which allow large corporate figures to accumulate multibillion-dollar in-comes subject to minimal taxes.</jats:p>