Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon Sociometabolic research in Latin America: A review on advances and knowledge gaps in agroecological trends and rural perspectives María José LaRota-Aguilera a, *, Olga Lucía Delgadillo-Vargas b, Enric Tello c a Laboratorio de Ecología y Territorio, Instituto de Estudios Metropolitanos y Regionales de Barcelona, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain b Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia c Departamento de Historia Económica, Instituciones, Política y Economía Mundial, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Current agricultural systems have reached a critical transition point in their biophysical performance, social and Socioecological transitions environmental impacts, and energy patterns. The theoretical underpinnings of transitions towards sustainable Ecologically unequal exchange futures have been studied from different approaches. The perspective of Social Metabolism (SM) studies how Sustainability dynamic equilibriums of society-nature interactions arise in complex agroecosystems characterized by specific Global South Social metabolism metabolic profiles that set their capabilities and limits. Changes between these regimes are understood as sociometabolic Transitions (SMT).This article offers a quantitative and qualitative review of how these SM and SMTs have been studied in Latin America so far, pointing out: i) the main conceptual and methodological ap­ proaches used, ii) the geographical scales of analysis, and iii) the main periods studied in the literature review. After identifying the different ways to account for the SMTs in LA, it discusses the prevailing SM narratives on the region's economic development. We found a scarce effort in carrying out multi-scalar studies linking national data with local case studies and a need to spread and adopt innovative SM methodologies and indicators to carry out more complex and comprehensive research on how inequality has framed the LA's agricultural paths and set their prospects. 1. Introduction: global environmental change and the Krausmann, 2018). Nonetheless, the current global extension of agri­ sustainability role of agricultural systems cultural land is predicted to double in the next 30 years to satisfy pop­ ulation demands (Tilman et al., 2001, 2002). This scenario is primarily It is increasingly and widely recognized that our current social projected for Global South regions that supposedly offer a surplus of metabolism is unsustainable. During the upcoming decades, the global agricultural land, suitable climatic and soil conditions, and an abundant energy and materials demand is likely to grow by a factor of 2 to 3 labor force (Smeets et al., 2007). (Krausmann et al., 2008), increasing the trespassing of several Earth The theoretical underpinnings of transitions towards sustainable system's limits and aggravating the current environmental crisis (Steffen futures have been studied from different approaches (Fischer-kowalski et al., 2015). As never before, a global consensus calls for the urgent and Rotmans, 2009; Görg et al., 2017; Lachman, 2013, p. 269). Kraus­ need to transform many nature-society relationships and to start a mann et al. (2008) define the dynamic equilibriums of society-nature transition towards more sustainable social metabolisms. interaction in complex systems as sociometabolic regimes, characterized One essential dimension of our social metabolism, both historically by specific metabolic profiles that set their capabilities and limits. The and at present, relies on the agricultural systems, which are complex changes in regimes are then understood as sociometabolic Transitions socioecological systems co-regulated by socioeconomic and ecological (hereto SMT) (Fischer-kowalski and Rotmans, 2009; Fischer-Kowalski processes (Haberl et al., 2011). Agriculture has been the basis of sub­ and Haberl, 2007). This approach has been fundamental to understand sistence for our societies, providing us with food, raw materials, and long-term transitions (i.e., from hunter-gatherers to agrarian and to in­ energy for millennia. However, current agricultural systems have dustrial regimes), offering a global systemic perspective backed by the reached a critical transition point in their performance, environmental robust conceptual framework of social metabolism (hereto SM) impacts (Tilman et al., 2002), and energy patterns (Gingrich and (González de Molina and Toledo, 2014) and different methodological * Corresponding author. E-mail address: mariajose.larota@uab.cat (M.J. LaRota-Aguilera). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107310 Received 30 September 2020; Received in revised form 1 December 2021; Accepted 2 December 2021 Available online 18 December 2021 0921-8009/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 tools and indicators (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007). The study of methodologically (Gabriel et al., 2020; Gerber and Scheidel, 2018; SMT allowed us to understand, with great detail and from a sustain­ Infante-Amate et al., 2017), and its usefulness for analyzing current ability perspective, the different historical SM paths that led some na­ global sustainability issues (Haberl et al., 2019). In-depth revisions and tions throughout the nineteenth century to an industrialized metabolic analyses for the agrarian dimension of SM have been carried out by regime (Cunfer and Krausmann, 2015; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2018a, Guzmán-Casado et al. (2018a, 2018b). 2018b; Krausmann and Fischer-Kowalski, 2013). SM can be defined as the way in which human societies organize the To date, only a small group of societies belonging to highly indus­ exchanges of energy and materials with their natural environment to trialized countries has fully overcome the last SMT. Furthermore, many reverse the entropic process they are subject to (Fischer-Kowalski, 1998; of these nations currently intend to transition towards more sustainable, González de Molina and Toledo, 2014). This framework presents a new post-industrial metabolic regimes (Haberl et al., 2019). Conversely, perspective on humans' relationships with their biophysical environ­ nearly two-thirds of the world's population- corresponding to Global ment by studying how the energy, materials, and information carried by South regions, are still under agrarian regimes or somewhere in the societies interact with natural processes and change original ecosystems middle from agrarian and industrial ones. These nations are also at a into cultural landscapes (Tello et al., 2006). Accounting for these in­ crossroads between economic development and sustainability, facing teractions provides valuable information to assess a society's environ­ the challenges of sourcing Northern economies with agri-food, oil, and mental sustainability (González de Molina and Toledo, 2014; González mineral exports while struggling to reduce poverty and inequality, de Molina et al., 2012; Haberl et al., 2019). promote social inclusion, natural ecosystem protection, and fight There are two main conceptual and methodological approaches to climate change. SM. The most widely used is the Material and Energy Flow Accounting For instance, in Latin America (LA), the agricultural sector grows at (MEFA), developed by the Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI), an average of 2.7% per year. It contributes on average to 4.7% of the the Wuppertal Institute, and the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna region's GDP, a figure partly attributed to an increase in agri-business (SEC). MEFA is a stock-flow approach designed to analyze the bio­ developments (OECD/FAO 2019) at the expense of many subsistence- physical trajectories of economies and societies today and throughout oriented and often agroecological peasant-farming units. This trend is history (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007; Krausmann et al., 2009). By expected to continue as, under a conventional economic view, the region accounting for the biophysical relationships between territories, MEFA must remain a significant source of agri-food commodities; a goal only can also describe how resources are appropriated, transformed, and achievable by raising production through intensive agro-industrial consumed by societies (Haberl et al., 2007). management many times imposed through land grabbing over agricul­ Mario Giampietro developed the second approach at the Institute of tural land considered “underused” (Borras et al., 2012). Under this Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA). This approach is based scenario, the future of LA is torn between developmentalist and sustain­ on Goergescu-Roegen’s (1971) reproductive, Fund-Flow model. It con­ able agroecology paths (Altieri and Toledo, 2011). Finding feasible and siders SM as an integrated set of functions expressed by a complex self- desirable ways of sustainably advancing from the current conflictive organizing system “capable of gathering energy and material inputs, and realities of LA's agri-food systems is imperative. dumping wastes into the environment to reproduce itself according to Despite this scenario, there has been a scant effort to understand the information stored in the system” (Giampietro et al., 2014, p. 24). SMTs through the global North-South divide and the current SM patterns Arguing that systems cannot be understood without looking at their that establish both the constraints and the opportunities for any possible multiple spatial and temporal scales, Giampietro et al. developed the future transition in LA. We consider that the socio-metabolic approach is Multiscale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism essential to understand these realities. However, the current tools and (MuSIASEM) to study the nexuses among the different societal and elements of this methodological and conceptual framework must be ecological metabolic processes at different dimensions and scales adapted and further developed to understand and navigate the current (Giampietro et al., 2009). socio-ecological crisis in LA. 1.2.1.1. Agrarian metabolism. Agricultural systems play a major role in 1.1. Goals and research questions the biophysical basis of our societies and their SM. Energy, materials, and information constantly enter exit and recirculate within agro­ This article aims to review the existing SM studies of LA, focusing on ecosystems, not only altering them but ultimately shaping the human- agrarian metabolism, and to discuss their contributions to understand­ colonized territory (Font et al., 2020; González de Molina and Toledo, ing and overcoming current LA's sustainability issues. Based on this 2011; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2018a). The study of agroecological pro­ revision, the article aims to respond to the following questions: cesses is the focus of Agrarian Metabolism (AM). Its study is based on How has SM been studied in LA, and what can it tell us about Latin complimentary SM methods, such as carbon balances and greenhouse America's SMT towards industrialization? What are some remaining gas emissions (Aguilera et al., 2018; Aguilera et al., 2019a, b; Billen knowledge gaps and leading topics to be addressed by forthcoming et al., 2021), soil nutrient and water balances at an agroecosystem level research? And finally, how can this knowledge help address and over­ (Cunfer and Krausmann, 2009; Garcia-Ruiz et al., 2012; Tello et al., come the current sustainability crisis of the region? 2012; Vila-Traver et al., 2021), and MEFA energy analyses (i.e., To do so, first, the article presents a brief introduction with the multi-EROI) at local, regional, and national scales (Guzmán-Casado seminal work in SM and SMT, which have guided long-term sustain­ et al., 2018a, 2018b; Tello et al., 2015, 2016). ability studies around the world. Secondly, we define the methodology The exploration of energy flows within agroecosystems has allowed used to select and review the existing literature. Then, we present the tracking energy efficiency across SMTs in various industrialized nations results. Finally, we discuss these narratives and their contribution to the (Galán et al., 2016; Gingrich et al., 2018a, 2018b; Gingrich and Kraus­ current reality of LA's rural world to spawn an interdisciplinary dis­ mann, 2018; González de Molina et al., 2020; Guzmán-Casado et al., cussion over possible alternatives to address the current socioecological 2018b; Soto et al., 2016; Tello et al., 2016). These elaborations have challenges in the region. been linked to landscape ecology analyses to evaluate territorial sus­ tainability from an agroecology landscape perspective (Marull et al., 1.2. Seminal studies on social metabolism and sociometabolic transitions 2016a, 2016b; Marull et al., 2018, 2019). A crucial contribution of AM has been the agroecological and his­ 1.2.1. Social metabolism torical approach to study long-term agroecosystem dynamics (González Over the past years, several comprehensive efforts have been made de Molina et al., 2020; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2018a, 2018b; Guzmán- to synthesize the advancements in the use of SM both conceptually and 2 M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 Casado and González de Molina, 2015). Also adopting a fund-flow Table 1 reproductive standpoint (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971), this approach un­ Summary of query parameters used to review the literature on social metabolism dertakes questions related to the evolution and sustainability of agri­ in LA. culture since the beginning of the 19th century, mainly in Austria, Spain, Category Category name Description Examples France, the United States, and Canada (Cunfer et al., 2018; Gingrich 1 Region Region and countries Latin América, Europe, et al., 2018c; Gingrich and Krausmann, 2018; González de Molina et al., studied global or meta-analysis. 2020; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2018a, 2018b; Harchaoui and Chatzim­ 2 Type of article Type of research Quantitative empirical, piros, 2019; MacFadyen and Watson, 2018; Parcerisas and Dupras, documented qualitative, discursive/ theoretical single or 2018; Soto et al., 2016). Combining energy and soil nutrient balances, it comparative case has been possible to understand the sustainability implications of SM studies. changes on agrarian systems in the long run (González de Molina et al., 3 Scale of data The scale of the data Product, farm, local, 2012; Díez et al., 2018a; Garrabou Segura and González de Molina, used for the analysis national, or regional 2010; Güldner, 2020; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2018b; Hercher-Pasteur scale 4 Level of analysis The level at which the Farm/agroecosystem, et al., 2020; Llinàs et al., 2021; Marco et al., 2018; Padró et al., 2017). analysis was done local, national, regional, global or 1.2.2. Sociometabolic transitions general. SMTs facilitate a clearer understanding of society's metabolic re­ 5 Methodological Main SM methodology Main: Material and approach used, as well as other Energy Flow Analysis gimes' structural and functional transformations and their socio­ complementary (MEFA), Multi-Scale ecological implications (Fischer-kowalski and Rotmans, 2009; methodological tools Integrated Analysis of Krausmann et al., 2016). They do it by identifying how societies trans­ used. Societal and Ecosystem formed the land matrix used for their sustenance and informing the Metabolism ruling actors and driving forces of these material and immaterial (MuSIASEM), Input- output analysis (IOA). changes (González de Molina et al., 2020, p. 16; González de Molina and Complementary: Toledo, 2014; Lachman, 2013, p. 274; Tello et al., 2017). The SMT HANPP, triggered by the industrial revolution has been studied in biophysical Socioecological terms to carry out analyses focused on local, regional, and national Analysis, EROI, Soil Nutrient flows. scales and the international interactions derived from trade flows to evaluate its implications at the global scale (Krausmann et al., 2008). The study of SMT is based on the society's material and energy bases and association, language, time window analysis, data sources, and relevant characterization of population densities, land use patterns, and specific analytical themes (i.e., Rural metabolism, Agrarian metabolism, Water features of the labor force (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007; Schandl metabolism, Social metabolism, Agroecology, Agrarian transitions, and Turner, 2009). Finally, this approach has been related to the liter­ LULCC, Immaterial, Land use conflicts) were also recorded for comple­ ature on Food Regimes useful for tackling current world sustainability mentary analysis when needed. challenges. (Krausmann and Langthaler, 2019; McMichael, 2014), 3. Results 2. Methodology We present the results in two sections. First, a quantitative overview 2.1. Literature review protocol of the studies reveals the extent and scope to which SM has been studied in LA. Specifically, it identifies the main conceptual and methodological A systematic search of the literature was carried out to identify ar­ approaches used and the geographical scales of analysis. Then, we ticles that deal with SM and SMT in LA. Searches in the scientific liter­ present the specific contributions of SM literature to the understanding ature were performed using Web of Science and Google Scholar with the of SMT in LA, identifying the main periods proposed in the literature following sets of keywords to ensure the inclusion of studies dealing review. with at least three of the following topics: (1) Social Metabolism (e.g., soci* metabolic*); (2) Metabolic transitions (e.g., metabo1ic or socio­ ecological transition); (3) Metabolic assessment (e.g., MEFA, MFA, 3.1. Approaches to the study of social metabolism in Latin America MuSIASEM, Biophysical flows); (4) Latin America (e.g., Latin America, Global South, Developing countries), (5) Agrarian processes (e.g., In general, most metabolic studies have focused on MEFA at the agrarian metabolism, agroecosystem). Results of the search cover the regional and country-level, offering a systemic perspective of the period from 1980 to 2020. Citations (N = 80) were extracted and economy-environment relationships based on aggregated national data compiled on a citation database. Publication's abstract, keywords and (Fischer-kowalski and Amann, 2001; Giljum and Eisenmenger, 2004). methodologies were reviewed case-by-case to assure they were actually For Latin America, MEFA was also the most frequently used tool (47% of referring to SM and did not only allude to it, excluding off-topic articles. the time, n = 27), with assessments at local (n = 2), national (n = 11), Additional relevant publications referenced on relevant articles that did and regional (n = 11) levels. By the submission of this publication, there not appear in the initial review were included. A total of 66 publications were published metabolic profiles of the economies of Argentina (Perez- strictly referring to SM in LA remained. Manrique et al., 2013), Perú (Silva-Macher, 2016), Ecuador (Russi et al., An initial categorization was made according to i) the region and 2008; Vallejo, 2010), Colombia (Pérez-Rincón, 2006; Urrego-Mesa countries where each case study was developed or analyzed; ii) the type et al., 2018; Vallejo et al., 2011), Costa Rica (Infante-Amate and Picado, of research or article (i.e., single or many quantitative and empirical 2018), México (Gonzalez-Martinez and Schandl, 2008) and Chile (Gil­ case studies, qualitative, discursive/theoretical); iii) the scale of data jum, 2004). These studies are frequently focused on the overall country's and analysis (i.e., product, farm, local, national or regional scale); iv) the economy, and seven of them focused on the agricultural sector or local level of the study (i.e., global, regional, national, local, agroecosystem or agrarian processes (Delgadillo-Vargas et al., 2016; Infante-Amate and general); v) theoretical and methodological SM approach, as well as Picado, 2018; Pengue, 2005; Pérez-Rincón, 2006; Urrego-Mesa et al., other complementary methodological tools, used. A summary of the 2018). query parameters applied in the analysis is presented in Table 1. Through MEFA indicators (e.g., Domestic Extraction, Domestic Ma­ Other additional information, such as the principal author's terial Consumption, Domestic Material Input, and Physical Trade 3 M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 Balances), LA metabolic studies have evidenced the deterioration in SM methodologies, such as soil nutrient balances and Human Appro­ trade terms between these economies and industrialized ones, as well as priation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) (Delgadillo-Vargas et al., an increase in energy consumption (Perez-Manrique et al., 2013) and 2016; Marull et al., 2017). material use (Vallejo et al., 2011). In dialogue with political ecology Most studies encompass, at the most, a 40 years' time window for the studies, a trend in the reprimarization of the economies (Pérez-Rincón, analyzes, corresponding to the last half of the 20th century. Only four 2006), and the role of resource extraction on the generation of a myriad studies include data before the 1950s (Delgadillo-Vargas et al., 2016; of socio-environmental conflicts also became clear (Martínez-Alier, Infante-Amate and Picado, 2018; Marull et al., 2017; Urrego-Mesa et al., 2011; Martínez-Alier and Walter, 2016; Muradian et al., 2012; Pérez- 2018), and two of them specifically carried out long-term biophysical Rincón et al., 2018; Scheidel et al., 2020). Most studies addressing the accountings (Infante-Amate and Picado, 2018; Urrego-Mesa, 2021; evolution of land biomass flow throughout the 20th century have been Urrego-Mesa et al., 2018). These studies characterize and relate the SMT conducted mainly locally. Only two recent studies in LA have used of agrarian sectors to the sustainability of the coffee agroecosystems in MEFA to analyze biomass production and its role in the economy at large Costa Rica (Infante-Amate and Picado, 2018; Montero et al., 2021a, or agrarian sector (Infante-Amate et al., 2020; Urrego-Mesa, 2021). 2021b) and deforestation trends in Colombia (Urrego-Mesa et al., 2018). The second group of studies (14% of this review) adopts MuSIASEM The most geographically comprehensive study (Falconí and Vallejo, to quantify and characterize the SM of LA's various economic sectors and 2012a, 2012b) analyses the SMT for the Andean region by using MEFA activities (Borzoni, 2011; Recalde and Ramos-Martín, 2011; Silva- accounts to evaluate economic efficiency, distribution, and physical Macher, 2016). MuSIASEM studies (n = 8) were mostly done for regional sustainability. They proposed that LA economies have made scarce (n = 5) and national (n = 3) levels. National-scale studies employing diversification efforts, relying on the extractive sector, especially non- MuSIASEM revealed the high energy consumption and unsustainable renewable sources, and identified an increase in GDP, a poverty reduc­ metabolic energy rates of Peru's mining sector (Silva-Macher, 2016) and tion, social inequity, and environmental pressure as key determinants to Brazil's soybean biodiesel industry (Borzoni, 2011). Due to the promoting socioecological transitions. complexity of data required to carry out this multiscale analysis, studies According to Krausmann et al. (2008, 2009) several of the trends often refer to punctual years in time. Only one presents a mid-term identified by MEFA studies for LA could be considered signals of a approach evidencing the unsustainability of the metabolic pathway of transition towards industrial metabolisms. However, our review shows Argentina (Recalde and Ramos-Martín, 2011). A handful of MuSIASEM that such trends (i.e., the increase in the production of fossil energy in studies focus on the evolution of the agricultural sector and its metabolic the Andean region between 1970 and 2009 or the urbanized population implications for the rural sector at household (Mingorría et al., 2014; and the relatively high level of energy consumption per capita of Ravera et al., 2014) and community levels (Arizpe et al., 2014). Lastly, Argentina) have not been enough to change the productive matrix of LA. one comparative, multitemporal analysis (1980 and 2000) using MuSI­ Furthermore, it has not allowed overcoming the problems associated ASEM explored the economic development of Brazil, Venezuela, and with LA's insertion model in world markets since the economies still Chile. Observing the exosomatic energy trajectories (Ramos-Martín highly rely on biomass production and other primary exports. In other et al., 2008) shows the close relationship between commodity and nat­ words, rather than developing a strong industrial sector, LA countries ural resource export-based economies and the not yet completed have deepened and expanded their extractive economies (Giljum and industrialization. Eisenmenger, 2004; Infante-Amate et al., 2020; Perez-Manrique et al., Finally, and although it is not strictly a SM methodology, but rather 2013). In this sense, Krausmann's typology for analyzing sociometabolic an adaptation of the Material Flows Accounting in conjunction with transitions might be too general to fit the features and trends of many LA socioeconomic indicators, a set of works studying SM in LA follows economies. Toledo's (2008) social-economic proposal of rural metabolisms. Based However, the following section summarizes three significant periods on biophysical and economic flows, these works focused on the de­ of main socio-metabolic changes in LA identified throughout the liter­ terminants of nature's appropriation process, as the beginning of the ature review. These periods and breakpoints have to be taken with metabolic relationship between humans and nature, identifying the caution as they are based only on a limited number of studies in some LA different material, energy, and information flows at the local and com­ countries. Therefore, they must be considered functional working hy­ munity scales for specific historical periods. Although the temporal potheses to carry out more research to confirm, reject, or amend them. scales used are not enough to elucidate a metabolic transition, Toledo's school is widely represented in the sustainability studies of LA, despite 3.2.1. Main periods of the SMT in LA: driving and hindering forces being underrepresented in peer-reviewed, international journals databases. 3.2.1.1. Before 1950. During the first wave (1916–48), the LA agrarian systems exhibited the standard features of the traditional organic or 3.2. Contributions of SM literature to the understanding of SMT in Latin mixed industrial-organic farm systems, which throughout the First America Globalization (1870–1914) had combined export-led specialization in some commodities (e.g., coffee and sugar in tropical areas or grains and The study of SMT offers a historical perspective on how societies meat in temperate ones) with a widespread domestic production of have organized themselves using nature to satisfy their endosomatic and staple food (Urrego-Mesa, 2021). During the interwar period, the first exosomatic material-energy needs. The transition towards industrialized liberal globalization went into the crisis with dramatic periods of exports metabolic regimes has implied the expansion and intensification of the downturns and punctual food shortages that gave rise to a general trend SM (Krausmann et al., 2009). Some determining factors of the SMT from towards new import substitution policies and state-led developmentalist an organic to an industrial metabolic regime have been well-established paths. by analyzing population density changes, land use patterns, technolog­ The literature reviewed reports a first preindustrial phase in coun­ ical advancements that improve resource use efficiency, and waste tries like Colombia, where regional agriculture changed (Delgadillo- disposal. Vargas et al., 2016; Marull et al., 2017) and national biomass flows For LA, only a few works in the existing literature specifically address (Urrego-Mesa et al., 2018) suggested the beginning of a possible SMT. the SM, and most do it by using MEFA at the country (Falconí and These changes responded to international, national, and local driving Vallejo, 2012a; Infante-Amate and Picado, 2018; Urrego-Mesa et al., forces, such as international experts' missions and alliances, such as the 2018) and regional scales (Eisenmenger et al., 2007). These studies Chardon Mission in 1929, Lauchlin Currie in 1950, the Lilienthal revealed an increase in the use of non-renewable energies to fuel in­ mission in 1954, and even the interventions of the Rockefeller, Ford, and dustrial processes in LA. Only two exceptions adopt different secondary 4 M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 Kellogg foundations (Delgadillo-Vargas and Valencia, 2020; Picado, inputs, leaving countries with a growing external debt (Hall and Pérez, 2012), and later the Alliance for Progress (1961–1970). Precisely, an 2000; Dorninger and Eisenmenger, 2016; Eisenmenger et al., 2007; explicit aim of the Alliance for Progress was to spread the Green Revo­ Infante-Amate et al., 2020). lution across LA to promote agricultural economic growth as an alter­ native to prevent more egalitarian land distribution regimes (Picado, 4. Discussion 2008). This strongly influenced the trajectory of LA from the 1950s to1980s. 4.1. The hindering forces of the SMT in LA 3.2.1.2. 1950s to 1980s. A second stage in the SMT began with Raúl In a globalized economy, where countries are immersed in the in­ Prebisch's ECLAC mandate and the state-led implementation of the ternational trade system, the socioeconomic metabolism is affected by guidelines for industrialization. It meant a steady increase in fossil en­ the use and exchange of energy and material coming from and going to ergy extraction in the Andean region and an overall rise in mineral ores other societies. Accordingly, several of these nations' economic growth and other material extraction for the studied LA economies (Falconí and and industrialization paths have been facilitated or limited by the nat­ Vallejo, 2012a, 2012b; Infante-Amate et al., 2020). ural resource endowment of their physical environment. In some cases, This second wave of agrarian industrialization also began after the evolution of domestic extraction has not been driven by internal World War II. It spread during this period with the increase of fossil fuel- population growth (as in many already industrialized countries) but by based inputs as the primary source of agricultural external energy inputs biomass and mining exports (Perez-Manrique et al., 2013). In this sense, mainly applied in the export-led growth of old and new agri-food SMTs in “developing” countries have not depended solely on internal commodities. A relevant share of the staple food for domestic con­ processes but have been mainly influenced by the international econ­ sumption remained produced by small family farms under partial or omy (Eisenmenger et al., 2007; Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007, total organic management (Altieri and Toledo, 2011). chap. 3–5). Throughout this review, a clear link with unequal exchange litera­ 3.2.1.3. 1980s to 2000s. After the 1980s debt crisis of the Andean ture emerged (Emmanuel, 1972). Political Ecology and Ecological Eco­ countries, new reprimarization policies that drifted away from the nomics (SM) literature coincide that the new international division of CELAC objectives were adopted under the new neoliberal turn of the labor has promoted LA specialization in producing food and raw mate­ Washington Consensus adopted by the LA elites, discouraging the rials. This condition has led to a path of ecologically unequal exchange development of the industrial sector and cooperation among developing among industrialized core regions and “developing” peripheral ones nations, forcing them to refocus on what “they have been known to do (Eisenmenger et al., 2007; Falconí and Vallejo, 2012a, 2012b; Hornborg, best”: produce commodities to export to the global market (Hall and 1998; Hornborg and Martinez-Alier, 2016; Muradian and Martinez- Pérez, 2000; Pérez-Rincón, 2006). Alier, 2001; Pérez-Rincón, 2006). Under this thesis, LA continues to be In the case of Colombia, during this third wave (1986–2000), annual a supplier of raw material and cheap labor, promoting dependency and rates of growth of the energy content of External Inputs slowed mainly “underdevelopment” in the region. Behind these unfavorable market due to the little advance in mechanization, while the use of fertilizers and trade conditions is the incapacity of Global South economies to and pesticides almost three–folded (Urrego-Mesa, 2021). Despite the accumulate a surplus that strengthens industry development, hindering growth of these land-saving inputs that drove land intensification, the completion of an SMT to industrialization (Eisenmenger et al., mainly in the export sector, the agricultural frontier kept its extensive 2007). Economic development, then, might be considered a positional advance due to the skyrocketing export growth kept up to the present good—i.e., to be enjoyed for some, precisely because others are (Urrego-Mesa, 2021). The increasing dependence of most LA countries excluded (Naredo Pérez and Valero Capilla, 1999). on essential staple food imports already evidences the loss of food se­ Linking biophysical and monetary flows allowed to understand the curity and sovereignty (Infante-Amate et al., 2020) and substantial inequality hindering a transition in LA from a socio-metabolic threats to ecological functioning and sustainability (LaRota-Aguilera perspective. For the agricultural world, this unequal situation is rein­ and Marull, 2022forthcoming). Only in some cases, like Costa Rica, forced by LA payments of external debt to foreign lenders since the deforestation has been halted, and a forest transition began in the early 1980s, often directed to external agricultural input acquisition (Hall and 2000s (Montero et al., 2021c). Pérez, 2000). However, a purely monetary accounting of their global trade and pricing does not reflect the environmental and social costs 3.2.2. From sociometabolic literature to political ecology they mean for LA. The exchange also involves the export of LA's goods (e. The reviewed SM publications align with the LA structuralist school's g., minerals, oil, and biomass with high exergy values) while ‘bads’ (e.g., thesis of unequal exchange and add biophysical flow accounting to the mining environmental liabilities and depletion of soil nutrients) remain market power asymmetries in price formation and value-added distri­ in its territories (Anguelovski and Martínez-Alier, 2014; Martínez-Alier, bution (Pérez-Rincón, 2006; Prebisch, 1950). The literature supports the 2003; Martínez-Alier, 2009; Muradian and Martinez-Alier, 2001). The notion that the condition of unequal exchange has led LA to fail to insert expansion of agroindustry and the energy-mining model aimed at the into the world economy from a perspective other than a raw material foreign markets produces a widening of commodity extraction frontiers supplier, and therefore, transit towards different metabolic stages (Kay, towards new territories where smallholder peasants and indigenous 2010). This statement goes hand in hand with what Falconí and Vallejo communities live carrying out sustainable ways of farming. The agri­ (2012a, 2012b) named the specialization trap. While LA exports poorly- cultural industrialization and the development impacts on LA territories paid and low-skilled labor products (e.g., natural resources), it imports and communities are reported daily by social movements, activists, and expensive high-skilled manufactured goods from the Global North. This scientists, to the extent that it is recognized as an “internal colonialism” condition leads to an ever-increasing quantity of exports needed to (Acosta et al., 2011). These unsustainable extractive dynamics are obtain the same amount of imported goods (Ramos-Martín et al., 2008). driven by an ever-growing demand for cheap raw materials and energy A clear example is presented for Argentina, which has tried several times carriers from the global economic growth, mainly from the North, to follow a path of staple theory –a successful model for countries like leading to a depletion of natural resources and environmental degra­ Canada— but has only increased its dependence on commodity exports dation in some of the most biodiverse regions and ecosystems of the (Perez-Manrique et al., 2013). SM studies have also highlighted the world (Borzoni, 2011; Silva-Macher, 2016). market disadvantages of the agricultural sector in LA, dropping product Another hindering force of these SMTs, although not directly prices while maintaining a high demand for imported agricultural assessed throughout the reviewed SM studies, is the weight of socio- political factors. Land grabbing, unequal land distribution, 5 M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 institutional biases and weaknesses, the concentration of the industrial Marull et al., 2018; Marull et al., 2016b). It can be of help to study SMT and extractive activities by global North-based multinationals, the lack from a LA and Global South perspective. of political will, and the corruption that maintains these monopolies Those integrative approaches could be especially relevant for An­ raise a barrier to the transition towards more sustainable metabolisms dean countries, where agriculture is still highly practiced by native (Martínez-Alier and Walter, 2016; Scheidel et al., 2018; Veltmeyer, indigenous, peasant, and afro-descendant communities. Studying the 2019). Market prices of goods and labor act as switches that convert myriad of current agricultural practices in LA could contribute to rescue biophysical flows (i.e., materials and energy carriers) into income. The knowledge lost decades ago on the organization of agricultural land­ prices are strongly determined by the previously established distribution scapes. Furthermore, this knowledge can be linked to regional and na­ of the funds (i.e., land and capital goods) that provide those flows. These tional narratives on SMT, with potential contributions to a transition monetary flows are converted back into other biophysical flows of towards sustainability. different quantity and quality in final consumption baskets, leaving a monetary surplus concentrated in the hands of a small group of people 4.2.2. Integrating spatial scales and the agricultural dimension (e.g., local elites or multinationals) who increase their capital accumu­ LA's assessments of the SMT have failed to articulate the material lation and decide the allocation of new investments to accumulate more outcomes (MEFA analyzes) with a comprehensive observation of his­ natural resources, technological capital goods and financial assets torical transformations, the different scales and societal configurations, (Marco et al., 2020; Nawn, 2016). It is, therefore, clear that ecologically and the social ruling forces behind these changes. Regional (Infante- unequal exchange paths have gone hand in hand with high levels of Amate et al., 2020) and national (Urrego-Mesa et al., 2018) studies internal inequality in LA nations and the role exerted by the local elites, provide relevant quantitative time-series evidence on the region's shift many times watching over the interests of multinational companies, in from one socioecological regime to another. However, these studies preventing other more egalitarian development paths (Kay, 2009; Kay, might miss crucial subnational and local profiles in transition at the base 2002). of many LA economies (Grünbühel et al., 2007, p. 139), as well as the micro-structures producing the social movements that challenge the 4.2. Challenges of the SM research to understand sustainable transitions prevailing extractivism dynamics and raise sustainability claims in LA (Amann et al., 2002). Local and agroecosystem scales, as well as the agrarian dimension, are essential to consider because, although agri­ 4.2.1. Long-term data availability and integrative methodologies culture in LA has progressively undergone a conversion towards more This literature review evidenced that the information available to intensive, market-dominated management systems (R. Grau and Aide, conduct long-term metabolic analyses in LA is still limited. It does not 2008), small-scale and low-intensity agriculture remains the most provide enough historical depth to study the industrial SMT. Hence, common production systems (Altieri and Toledo, 2011). Even in the SM there is an urgent need for more empirical studies that will gradually literature, this bias reinforces the difficulties of having reliable sub- help define the time window of the transition. MEFA and MuSIASEM national data from public statistics, deriving on a predominantly tech­ approaches provide a dynamic and comparative view of the pressures nocratic macroeconomic view obtained from large-scale, commercial associated with material extraction in LA economies, an insightful agriculture sector data, and masking concurrent agrarian and rural re­ assessment of the current prevailing trends. Nonetheless, they have alities in which small-scale farmers rely on sustainability-oriented some limitations for LA yet. MEFA's conventional indicators may be agriculture for their livelihoods. similar for countries that reflect different economic structures and trade MEFA methodologies still have to be fully adjusted to tackle the patterns (Perez-Manrique et al., 2013). This limitation suggests the need multiscale specificities of agricultural processes and agroecosystems to include in the analysis the role of internal and international policies (Guzmán-Casado and González de Molina, 2017). The bioeconomic and (agents of immaterial metabolism) on the different SM paths among LA agroecological accounting of biophysical balances of farm systems and countries (González de Molina and Toledo, 2014). the patterns and trends observed in their Energy Return on Investment On the other hand, studies adopting the MuSIASEM approach have (EROI) from a fund-flow reproductive viewpoint offer promising not contributed notably to SMT data in LA. They provide interesting analytical tools to evaluate their sustainability paths either at the farm background data on the agrarian changes of some countries through and local scales or at regional and national level (Cattaneo et al., 2018; snapshots of their metabolic patterns and shed light on multiscalar Díez et al., 2018b; Galán et al., 2016; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2018b; accentuating factors and drivers of change. However, MuSIASEM's po­ Guzmán-Casado and González de Molina, 2015). Moreover, these ma­ tential can also be a limitation, since multidimensional and multiscale terial and energy balances of agroecosystems open the way to other data is often unavailable for LA despite being a comprehensive tool. landscape agroecology modeling carried out at different spatial di­ Furthermore, it is not particularly suitable to analyze long-term pro­ mensions, providing integrated analysis fundamental for land use cesses, as the SMT does (Gabriel et al., 2020; Gerber and Scheidel, planning and other policy-making processes (Padró et al., 2020; Padro 2018). et al., 2020). In this regard, a less discussed but clear challenge of SM and sus­ The existing literature suggests that the extractive metabolism tainability studies in LA is the lack of robust, congruent, and long-term typical of LA countries will directly impact the landscapes and land-use data, a product of a history of institutional weakness and scientific transformations. This territorial imprint reflects the different stages of underfunding. In turn, most SM studies in LA have used national sta­ metabolic transitions that coexist and sometimes fight among them in tistics taken from FAOSTAT, making it difficult to trace the SMT based different scales and places (Marull et al., 2017; Montero et al., 2021b). on sub-national data. This constraint will undoubtedly require more However, very few of the metabolic studies for LA are linked to the fieldwork to collect empirical data on agroecosystem functioning at the spatial landscape dimensions and specific geographic spaces. This local level. Future studies could also benefit from the methodological “territorialized” metabolic analysis will be fundamental to understand­ approaches adopted by the Agroecosystems History Laboratory in Sev­ ing how the reorganization of spatial patterns in socioecological systems illa and the Territory and Ecology Lab in Barcelona (Spain). Information shapes ecosystems and cultural landscapes (Fischer-Kowalski and Hab­ on past landscapes' functioning can also be figured out by studying erl, 2007, chap. 5). For the agrarian dimension, this territorialization current agroecological practices and agroecosystems. This new body of means studying the links between material, energy, and information research, not yet explored in LA, combines historiographic methodolo­ flows at the farm, local, country, regional, and global scales and across gies with agroecology, energy, and landscape ecology analyzes (i.e., them. HANPP, Land Cost of Agrarian Sustainability, Landscape Efficiency) According to Guzmán-Casado and González de Molina (2017), the (Cattaneo et al., 2018; Guzmán-Casado et al., 2011; Marull et al., 2019; center of our agri-food systems' unsustainability issues lies in their 6 M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 dependence on external inputs, and overcoming this dependence entails distributive conflicts (Martínez-Alier and Walter, 2016; Pengue, 2005; this closure of internal loops of complex agroecosystems that give rise to Scheidel et al., 2020; Vallejo, 2010) with Ecological Economy method­ new integrated agroecology territories (Wezel et al., 2016). Sustainable ologies, such as SM. For instance, the cultural resistance of peasant and agricultural systems imply that agroecosystem funds such as soil indigenous communities to extractivism is rooted in their growing ag­ fertility, livestock, and laboring communities should self-reproduce and roecological practices, which are uprising across the LA continent as a be maintained (Padró et al., 2019). It is at the landscape scale where the counterweight to the deleterious effects of agricultural industrialization most essential biophysical and biogeochemical soil cycles can be closed, for both local communities and the environment (Altieri and Toledo, accomplishing the conditions to scale up sustainable agroecology terri­ 2011). However, many of these local narratives are undermined by tories seen as the most comprehensive and integrative representation of policy-makers, given the “lack” of rigorous scientific data supporting a society's metabolism. This condition is at the core of the scaling up these claims. SM methodologies have great potential to provide quan­ agroecology strategy currently claimed worldwide for food sovereignty titative assessments of the social and environmental externalities of LA's movements and climate change mitigation and adaptation policies agri-food, mining, and energy sectors. (Altieri and Nicholls, 2012; Barrios et al., 2020). To keep uncritically projecting a future for LA following the unique The current threats on food security, food sovereignty, ecosystem path of rural and urban industrialization supposes an obsolete notion of services, soil fertility, and biodiversity across LA make it urgent to development for the 21st century. This developmentalist straitjacket advance this research. To that aim, integrative, multidimensional, and perpetuates the unequal power relations across the South-North eco­ multiscale studies are needed. They can highlight issues that the nomic divide and within Southern LA nations. It is, therefore, crucial to contemporary political debate typically hides, such as the environ­ search for alternative transition pathways for a LA rural world that stays mental costs of neoextractive policies. at a crossroads between the everyday resistance and claims of a myriad of smallholder peasant families and communities in agroecology land­ 4.2.3. New narratives scapes increasingly grabbed by agribusiness and mining corporations The SM and SMT literature for LA remain too circumscribed to the that foster unsustainable and unfair paths set in motion by neoliberal interpretive approaches developed for the countries of the Global North economic and social policies from the last decades of the 20th century (Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007; Krausmann et al., 2009; Kraus­ onwards (Brannstrom, 2009; Liverman and Vilas, 2006). mann et al., 2008; Schneider et al., 2010). This trend can be seen among Some inevitable questions emerge from this analysis: Do these results the predominant MEFA literature produced by La authors prone to the change the prevailing narratives on the region's economic development? structuralist approaches of the Prebish school. Therefore, we argue that If so, what can SM studies tell us about the role played by the LA's an epistemological twist towards post-structuralist proposals is needed external dependencies, the attitudes of rural elites and national and to foresee LA's future transitions and development paths (Acosta et al., regional governments, and the current resistances of small peasants, 2011; Escobar, 2010; Escobar, 1992; Gudynas, 2013). As long as the indigenous communities, and social movements? region will continue to play a pivotal role in global food production and exports, there seems to be no chance to advance towards more sus­ 4.2.4. A final note on characterizing the unequal exchange tainable and fair paths. There is still a long way to research the unequal socioecological To the question of whether or not these SM analyses and narratives exchanges from a socio-metabolic, socioeconomic, and gender- help understand Latin America's environmental history and current integrated approach. To date, the debate on unequal exchanges has rural realities, we answer that SM approaches are a helpful tool. How­ been approached almost exclusively from a global perspective focused ever, the emergent SM studies should ignite a much-needed discussion on international trade flows, physical trade balances, and embedded about the impacts of land use and land cover change driven by external labor and land. However, power asymmetries in self-regulated markets inputs dependence (i.e., the growing imports of chemical fertilizers (Polanyi, 1944) and unequal social and ecological exchanges have been while the life of cropland soils continues to deteriorate due to the loss of omnipresent also within nations, regions, and local communities (Bay­ organic matter). To that aim, material fund-flow analyses of agro­ liss-Smith, 1982). Furthermore, they are often closely related to other ecosystems are fundamental. They need to be connected with economic exploitative relationships, such as gender inequality, if not based upon accounting approaches of different emerging from the South, such as them (Mies, 1986; Picchio, 2003; Picchio, 1992). So far, there have been post-extractivism (Gudynas, 2013) and agroecological approaches only a handful of attempts to apply sociometabolic approaches to study (Holt-Giménez and Altieri, 2013). This literature will help navigate in an integrated way all these inequalities and exploitative social re­ claims and policies towards more pertinent and sustainable socio­ lations on these other spatial and temporal scales (Gizicki-Neundlinger ecological paths in the continent and, hopefully, fill the current et al., 2017; Gizicki-Neundlinger and Güldner, 2017; Grünbühel and knowledge gaps on addressing a widespread change of LA agricultural Schandl, 2005; Güldner and Krausmann, 2017; Padró et al., 2019; systems. Scheidel, 2013). According to González de Molina and Toledo (2014, p. 316), the Therefore, beyond accumulating empirical data on the persistence of main weakness of transition theories is their lack of political or insti­ LA new-extractivism based on socially and ecologically unequal ex­ tutional dimension analyses. Without new institutional frameworks fa­ changes with other parts of the world, more research and evidence is voring and developing SMT, transitions towards fairer and more needed to bring to light the multiscale linkages between external and sustainable futures will never occur. internal inequalities, their multifaceted character, and their joint oper­ Far from being driven only by scientific or technological efficiency ation using better socioecological approaches and methods that help physiognomy, SMT and the society-nature relationship are intricate. resolve the current open debates on the subject (Dorninger and Horn­ These processes affect different dimensions and levels of society, from borg, 2015). In a region of the world with the highest inequality figures, land ownership entitlement and distribution to social imaginaries and the analysis of societal unfairness from a sociometabolic perspective has values in dispute (Martínez-Alier, 2009; Martínez-Alier, 2003; Martínez- great potential to connect with an extensive literature on agrarian class Alier and Walter, 2016). It is, therefore, fundamental to study the role of structures, and food regimes developed long ago by LA scholars (Kay, local communities' resistance and Global Justice movements as levers 2015; Kay, 2002; Kay, 1991). The SM study of the social inequality for sustainable alternative paths. Moreover, policy debates on future fabric can help provide new answers to the key questions posed by sustainability roadmaps for LA must integrate these symbolic values in Henrry Bernstein (2010) on the long-term dynamics of agrarian change: dispute (Anguelovski and Martínez-Alier, 2014; Gerber and Scheidel, Who owns what? Who does what? Who gets what? What do they do with 2018; Scheidel et al., 2020; Scheidel et al., 2018). There is an excellent it? These inquiries open an avenue of research for the theory of opportunity to enrich the Political Ecology analyzes on ecologically Ecological Economics and Political Ecology to study the interlinked and 7 M.J. LaRota-Aguilera et al. Ecological Economics 193 (2022) 107310 multiscalar systemic character of all sorts of inequalities as exploitative perspective on soil organic carbon in Mediterranean cropland (Spain, 1900–2008). Sci. Total Environ. 621, 634–648. relations among humans (Gerber and Scheidel, 2018). Aguilera, E., Guzmán-Casado, G.I., González de Molina, M., Soto, D., Infante-Amate, J., 2019a. From animals to machines. The impact of mechanization on the carbon 5. Conclusions footprint of traction in Spanish agriculture: 1900–2014. J. Clean. Prod. 221, 295–305. 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