Argentina is known for its vast agricultural cultivations. In the past decade however, something went terribly wrong.
Lured by the promise of high yields, and even higher returns, Argentina switched to the cultivation of high yielding gmo soy crops, which are accompanied by the use of massive quantities of herbicides, chiefly glycophates, better known as Roundup.
While the cultivation has lined the country's coffers, the consequences of this type of intensive agriculture and the use of herbicides in such large quantities has resulted in a critical surge in cancer rates, birth defects and land theft among others.
A new documentary details Argentina's dramatic shift and its terrible consequences. interestingly, most Argentines have no knowledge of the new developments in their agriculture.
A disturbing development in the pursuit of lucrative agriculture is land theft, subtracted from poor campesinos by crafty local landowners and corrupt locals, where they are forced off the land, and sometimes killed if they do not surrender their land.
When the documentarian reached the north provinces to document the damage wrought by the gmo soy cultures, he was met by Nobel laureate, biologist Montenegro, who promptly warned him that he, like all the other villegers had been contaminated by pesticides, because the use was so indiscriminate that the ground was saturated with it.
The transformation of Argentina, from a meat producing country to a soy producing country has been promoted in the past decade by the agrichemical business Monsanto, who produces both the gmo seed and the pesticide to which they inure.
But doctors are becoming alarmed. They are reporting ever more numerous cases of birth defects and even more cases of children cancers. The epidemic, the locals contend, coincides with the introduction of Monsanto's crops.
The Director of the children's hospital in Cordoba, Dr. Vasquez, who is a neonatal specialist, relates that he sees many cases of child malformation. In some areas of Argentina, the primary cause of infant death are these gross malformations.
The documentarian was taken to another region by the neonatal doctor, the Malvinas Argentinas, not to be confused with the Falkland islands, a place surrounded by Soy plantations. The massive coltivation has caused the rain to become contamined with Roundup. That has resulted in the highest rate of miscarriage In twenty years, and a rate that is 100 times the national average.
To make matters worse, Monsanto has decided to build a factory in the area. 240 silos will be erected. They will contain corn that has been chemically treated with Roundup. When the corn rubs together, it forms a fine dust that becomes airborne when the internal ventilation systems in the silos is turned on. When all 240 silos are built, a cloud of chemical dust will cover the neighboring village.
Farmers and advocates are facing a tough battle. The country's president, Cristina Kirchner, is a fierce advocate of Monsanto.
The documentarian was then moved to an area that is 12 hours drive from the Malvinas farms. In the town of Chaco, when he finally reaches it, he is escorted by one of the town's advocates, a feisty woman in her sixties, to an institution that treats children affected by the chemicals used in Monsanto cultures. There he meets a boy, one of many in the village who is underweight, paralyzed. The mother recounts how after healthy pregnancies before this birth, she witnessed the crop dusting of Monsanto's fields. So much of the chemical was sprayed that the whole area was covered in fine dust. Before this boy was even born, doctors knew that the crop dusting was the cause of his congenital problems. He is not the only child in the village who is unable to walk.
At night , the documentarian was shown two charts by the local doctor, Each was a graph of the increase of soya plantations and the number of child birth defects. They overlapped perfectly. The doctor declared to have worked for 30 years in the area. The first twenty years he had never seen a malformation in any birth.
A leading embryologist in Argentina, Dr. Carrasco agrees. He has noted in his research that there is a correlation between the use of glycophate and birth defects in the lab.
Monsanto is up for the fight though. They have already denied that their product, Roundup, is causing the malformations.
When the documentarian was driven deeper into the country's interior, he was able to collect the testimonials of people who had been expropriated to make way for soya cultivation. It is that lucrative, that people are losing their life to it.
This has prompted thousands of farmers to form a coalition to defend themselves, called Mocase. They are fighting to retain their land, and to fight for biodiversity, for their heritage and their land.
Unfortunately the people and powers in the capital are far removed from the realities of soya bean cultivation and its perils. Most of the agricultural ministers extoll the virtues of this mass farming practice, saying it is the way of the future, the way to end famines. There was no acknowledgement on their part of the severity of the damage wrought.
The documentary will air as People and Power series next week.
sources: Al Jazeera 3.17.13 Argentina's ..
mintpress.net/argentinian-farmers-allege-monsanto-chemicals-poisoned-children/
See the video here:
Argentina's Bad Seeds - People & Power - Al Jazeera English
No comments:
Post a Comment