The consolidation of capitalist agriculture in countries such as Ecuador has led to a recent revaluation of territories (central highlands) where cheap labour has facilitated agribusiness development linked to the world market. This process generates growth in the numbers of rural wage workers and the creation of a labour market that, in relation to others in several Latin American countries, has certain particularities: permanent jobs, gender balance, an absence of intermediaries and low levels of precariousness. Small‐scale peasant producers are marginalized in this context and play functional roles within the current dynamics of agribusiness firms. The organizational weakness of rural wage earners and the pursuit of clientelist relationships by firms do not allow rural workers and local communities to devise economic and social strategies that might improve their position in this ‘field of forces’ in the territory.
This article addresses the process of social differentiation among peasants who were beneficiaries of the 1960s agrarian reform in the northern highlands of Ecuador. Although peasants obtained access to land that was previously in the hands of the haciendas, the incipient process of social differentiation that arose at that time was not halted. Today, peasants are incorporated into a commercial dynamic through milk production for agribusiness that has deepened the process of social differentiation between communities and within them. The supremacy of economic capital in the social field leads to a crisis in the traditional practices of reciprocity and to the incorporation of productive strategies and new “habitus” of consumption that have generated profound transformations in the territory.
Se analizó la calidad composicional, fisicoquímica e higiénica de la leche cruda acopiada en dos empresas procesadoras de lácteos en Cotopaxi, Ecuador, y se comparó con las normativas ecuatorianas. Se seleccionaron 10 proveedores por empresa para un total de 210 muestras por empresa colectadas en 21 días consecutivos. La calidad composicional (grasa) se midió con base a la norma INEN 0012, para la calidad fisicoquímico se utilizaron los métodos de análisis de las normas INEN 0009, INEN 0011, INEN 0013, CONVENIN 1315-79. Para la calidad higiénica se utilizó la norma AOAC 990.12 y para determinar residuos de antibiótico se usó el kit AuroFlow BTS Combo Strip Test. Las variables de acidez, materia grasa, densidad relativa, color, olor, aspecto, pH y antibiótico mostraron cumplimiento de la normativa ecuatoriana y no presentaron diferencias significativas entre las empresas receptoras. Contrariamente, el contenido de grasa y pH fueron diferentes entre las empresas (p<0.05). La calidad higiénica de la leche reportó un alto recuento de microorganismos aerobios mesófilos (7.58E+07 UFC/ml y 8.02E+07 UFC/ml) sin diferencias entre empresas. En conclusión, la mayoría de los parámetros de calidad fisicoquímica y composicional de la leche proveniente de unidades de producción familiar se ajustan a la normativa nacional, a excepción de la temperatura y la calidad microbiológica, resultados que se le atribuye a la inadecuada práctica de ordeño y almacenamiento de la leche.
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