Presentation short abstract

This paper explores how “simulated ignorance” about pesticide risks among Catalan farmers sustains the corporate agri-food regime. It shows how dependence, power, and epistemic gaps block agroecological transition and reinforce organized irresponsibility.

Presentation long abstract

This paper examines the production of ignorance surrounding pesticide risks in the fruit-growing sector of Lleida (Catalonia), based on qualitative research with twenty farmers. Despite widespread awareness of pesticide toxicity and mandatory safety training, everyday practices reveal a form of simulated ignorance: farmers acknowledge the risks but normalize them as an inevitable part of their work. This attitude does not arise from a lack of information but from structural dependencies within the corporate agri-food regime. The power of agrochemical corporations, retail chains, and regulatory institutions creates a system that transfers responsibility to farmers, undermining their autonomy and constraining transitions toward alternative models. From a political agroecology perspective, this situation exemplifies an “organized irresponsibility” (Beck, 1992), where ignorance and inaction are functionally necessary to sustain the hegemonic agro-industrial system. The study also highlights how the absence of institutional and educational references to agroecology reinforces the lack of alternative imaginaries for pest management and agricultural practice. Consequently, the epistemology of “not knowing” surrounding pesticides operates as a mechanism that obstructs agroecological transformation, perpetuating a dependent, toxic, and socially unequal production model. This case contributes to rethinking the political ecologies of pesticides as sites where knowledge, ignorance, and power are co-produced, revealing how epistemic and structural constraints maintain—or potentially contest—the global agro-industrial order.

Reference: Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity (M. Ritter, Trans.). Sage.