Soy monoculture chemical overflow
pig : "Oink, look out! That plane flying low over the fields and houses is spraying! What a smell, ugh, ugh. Pesticides, not only over the fields, but also over small private plots. Over peoples houses. Everyone is breathing it. This is why I see so many ill people here. Humans don't only disrespect animals, they poison their own likes. How barbarian!"

In the South American countries of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, the massive expansion of soy production for export has catastrophic consequences for rural communities and ways of living. Soybean cultivation is most profitable when done in a capital intensive and labour extensive way and has displaced more labour intensive production such as vegetables, cotton, and dairy farming. While large parts of Argentina and Brazil are already covered in soy plantations, it is much less known that Paraguay has become the world’s fourth largest soybean exporter.

In 2006, nearly 2.5 million hectares of soy was sown in Paraguay alone, an area comparable to the German State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Paraguayan authorities are planning an increase to 4 million hectares. According to the Paraguayan NGO BASE.IS, “…The expansion of mono-cultures “green deserts” such as large scale soy production promotes a mechanised agriculture without small farmers; without people. All mono-cultures are damaging to the ecosystems they supplant; they destroy biological and agricultural diversity, poison water sources and the soil and undermine the food security and sovereignty of the people and their countries. They cause poverty, unemployment and the eviction and exodus of communities in rural areas.”

In Argentina, nearly all soy grown is “RoundupReady” varieties from the biotech multinational Monsanto. This genetically modified soy plant is made resistant to the “kill all” herbicide “Roundup.” It survives intensive spraying while all other plants and weeds around it are killed. The use of this variety is advancing in Paraguay and Brazil as well.

Monoculture chemical overflow

Not only Roundup, but a cocktail of agrochemicals is sprayed on soy mono-cultures. The large scale and careless use of these pesticides has devastating impacts on nearby fields, on air, and on water quality and can cause dramatic health problems. “During the months of soy cultivation, rural communities suffer headaches, diarrhoeas and skin problems. In the communities surrounded by soy fields there is a high incidence of cancer, spontaneous abortions, premature births and birth defects.1”

In Argentina and Paraguay, campaigns have been initiated to resist these sprayings of soy fields. In Paraguay, a court case was won against two soy producers who had covered 11 years old Silvino Talavera with RoundupReady glyphosate twice by careless spraying, after which he died. In the process, his family was exposed to extreme forms of intimidation, varying from poisoned animals to the murder of the boy’s uncle. (see www.silvinotalavera.phy.ca)

In Argentina, rural and urban communities have started a campaign together called ‘Stop Fumigating,' after realizing the exorbitant number of skin and respiratory diseases, tumors, and cancers among people living near soy fields. After official research of the public health situation in an outer neighbourhood of the city Cordoba, the researchers concluded that the area should be declared uninhabitable. In other towns under investigation, they found “very significant incidence” of cancer and malformation in the studied areas.

According to the 'Stop Fumigating' campaign, the latest harvest of 15.5 million hectares soy consumed 160 million litres of glyphosate - six times more than a decade ago. It is sprayed within metres of people's homes. Protective zones around towns, like forests, and pastures have disappeared. The massive spraying also forces smallholders bordering the soy plantations to abandon or sell off their land due to loss of harvest, death of animals, and severe health problems caused by polluted air and water.2

notes:
1.Report “Paraguay Sojero”,
http://www.aseed.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=200&Itemi...
2.http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35511

links to:
Soy in numbers http://www.pig8soy.org/en/node/50
WTO for Soy http://www.pig8soy.org/en/node/56
The Structural Adjustment Program Monoculture Drive http://www.pig8soy.org/en/node/57