<i>“Agroextractivism meets Toxic Coloniality”</i>: EU pesticide exports and soy-driven pollution in the Amazon. Mendes, V. The Extractive Industries and Society, 27:101955, September, 2026. ![<i>“Agroextractivism meets Toxic Coloniality”</i>: EU pesticide exports and soy-driven pollution in the Amazon [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex Pesticide pollution is a rising problem for forests, rivers, biodiversity and local populations in the Amazon. Soy value chains are linked to the trade of pesticides between the European Union (EU) and Brazil, resulting in pollution in recent agricultural frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon. However, little is known about the underlying causes and social-environmental consequences of soy agroextractivism and pesticide pollution in the region. This article assesses the situation of the Santarém region, where soy production has drastically increased since 2000. With soy, the region has been facing pesticide contamination. The study is based on four months of ethnographic fieldwork between 2024 and 2025, observations and visits to local communities, as well as semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Santarém and in Europe. The concepts of “agroextractivism” and “toxic coloniality” are combined in a theoretical framework that offers an analytical lens to investigate how geoeconomic interdependencies (e.g., soy and pesticide trade between the EU and Brazil) are linked to social environmental injustices between distant regions. The article shows that social-environmental injustices materialize in Santarém not only through unequal regimes of extraction (e.g., the use of local land, water and ecosystems to produce soybeans to supply international markets) but also toxic coloniality (e.g., pesticides are left as a poisonous subproduct of soy agroextractivism). Therefore, Santarém has become a “sacrifice zone” in the international circuits for the production and trade of soybeans and pesticides. Brazil-EU soy value chains are sustained by social-environmental injustices that disproportionately affect Amazonian racialised populations and the environment. Consequences include health issues (e.g., cancer, respiratory diseases), food insecurity, and threats to livelihoods. Biodiversity loss was also identified, including decline in bee population and the emergence of invasive species. Broadly, the article corroborates the need to reconsider the development model grounded in the agro-extractivist export regime.
@article{mendesAgroextractivismMeetsToxic2026,
title = {\textit{“{Agroextractivism} meets {Toxic} {Coloniality}”}: {EU} pesticide exports and soy-driven pollution in the {Amazon}},
volume = {27},
issn = {2214-790X},
shorttitle = {\textit{“{Agroextractivism} meets {Toxic} {Coloniality}”}},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X26001048},
doi = {10.1016/j.exis.2026.101955},
abstract = {Pesticide pollution is a rising problem for forests, rivers, biodiversity and local populations in the Amazon. Soy value chains are linked to the trade of pesticides between the European Union (EU) and Brazil, resulting in pollution in recent agricultural frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon. However, little is known about the underlying causes and social-environmental consequences of soy agroextractivism and pesticide pollution in the region. This article assesses the situation of the Santarém region, where soy production has drastically increased since 2000. With soy, the region has been facing pesticide contamination. The study is based on four months of ethnographic fieldwork between 2024 and 2025, observations and visits to local communities, as well as semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Santarém and in Europe. The concepts of “agroextractivism” and “toxic coloniality” are combined in a theoretical framework that offers an analytical lens to investigate how geoeconomic interdependencies (e.g., soy and pesticide trade between the EU and Brazil) are linked to social environmental injustices between distant regions. The article shows that social-environmental injustices materialize in Santarém not only through unequal regimes of extraction (e.g., the use of local land, water and ecosystems to produce soybeans to supply international markets) but also toxic coloniality (e.g., pesticides are left as a poisonous subproduct of soy agroextractivism). Therefore, Santarém has become a “sacrifice zone” in the international circuits for the production and trade of soybeans and pesticides. Brazil-EU soy value chains are sustained by social-environmental injustices that disproportionately affect Amazonian racialised populations and the environment. Consequences include health issues (e.g., cancer, respiratory diseases), food insecurity, and threats to livelihoods. Biodiversity loss was also identified, including decline in bee population and the emergence of invasive species. Broadly, the article corroborates the need to reconsider the development model grounded in the agro-extractivist export regime.},
urldate = {2026-05-27},
journal = {The Extractive Industries and Society},
author = {Mendes, Vinícius},
month = sep,
year = {2026},
keywords = {Agroextractivism, Amazon, Biodiversity, Brazil-EU trade relations, Pesticide pollution, Soy value chains, Toxic coloniality},
pages = {101955},
}
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However, little is known about the underlying causes and social-environmental consequences of soy agroextractivism and pesticide pollution in the region. This article assesses the situation of the Santarém region, where soy production has drastically increased since 2000. With soy, the region has been facing pesticide contamination. The study is based on four months of ethnographic fieldwork between 2024 and 2025, observations and visits to local communities, as well as semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Santarém and in Europe. The concepts of “agroextractivism” and “toxic coloniality” are combined in a theoretical framework that offers an analytical lens to investigate how geoeconomic interdependencies (e.g., soy and pesticide trade between the EU and Brazil) are linked to social environmental injustices between distant regions. 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