The agricultural sector that is emerging has fewer, bigger, more industrial farms. It relies on imports of pesticides more than ever. And the quality of its famed meat is being traded for cheap production. It is a trend that will be difficult to reverse. Cattle farming takes such a large up front investment that once a farmer sells his herd, it is hard to get it back. Historically, Argentines have treated cattle as walking bank accounts—the word for the industry, ganaderia, shares the same root as the verb “to earn.” For many farmers, the bank is broken. They are now fully dependent on the volatile international prices of soy and other crops.