Farming paradise: COVID-19 and the coexistential rift

Journal article

In global discourses, the Galapagos Islands have been described as a ‘laboratory of evolution' and as the Earth's last paradise. These discourses have shaped the archipelago, attracting migrants and tourists. While scholars and inhabitants claim that residents have no culture, many farmers have a deep sense of belonging. My ethnographic fieldwork during the pandemic (2020-2021) suggested that this sense of belonging – a key to coexistence – is being weakened by the numerous overlapping risks currently facing Galapagueño farmers, including pests, climate change, and COVID-19. These challenges have aggravated existing problems in the agricultural sector, leading to a coexistential rift, a vicious cycle where farmers become more alienated from the earth they cultivate and from one another, due to their greater market dependence and the desperate need to make money. The risk this paper focuses on, COVID- 19, acted like a ‘time machine', bringing back aspects of what life had been like before the tourism boom and reviving a deep sense of nostalgia for a utopian past where people knew and cared for one another in the community and had a deep connection to the soil. Paradoxically, it has revealed utopian desires for the future which cannot materialize due to uncertainty, indebtedness, and the current political and economic system. By fostering a stronger sense of coexistence and supporting the agricultural sector, we have the potential to address social and environmental challenges.

Authors: Rodríguez Stimson, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Anthropological Society of Oxford
• Journal: Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 154-177
• Publication date: 2023-12-19
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-jnnym86y0
• ISSN: 2040-1876
• Language: English
• Keywords: coexistential rift; Galapagos Islands; belonging; JASO; paradise; risk