massive use of highly poisonous agrotoxins and widespread deforestation

DESCRIPTION OF THE CONFLICT

Abstract

In 1996 a particular variety of transgenic soy was introduced in Argentina. Marketed as Round Up Ready soy (RR), it was genetically modified to resist Round Up, a potent glyphosate-based herbicide. The North American multinational company Monsanto, a specialist in agricultural biotechnology and seeds and the worldwide leader in GM food production, produce both the RR soy and herbicide. Monsanto’s production of RR soy, which today covers over 17 million hectares of land in Argentina, has caused several environmental and social problems such as the reduction of food production for domestic markets, the displacement of peasants from the countryside, massive use of highly poisonous agrotoxins and widespread deforestation.

Causes of the Conflict

Argentine agriculture has been completely disrupted by the indiscriminate growing of GM soy, essentially because the soy monoculture agro-export model, promoted by biotechnology multinationals firms, has created so-called "agriculture without farmers." Soy production is carried out through a cultivation system described as "direct sowing", which involves the simplification of working operations, a high level of mechanisation and significant cost reductions. The massive use of agrotoxins in the countryside has been the most serious consequence of this agricultural model: in particular Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Round Up herbicide caused huge problems of environmental contamination as it was poisoning people living near fields sprayed with toxic substances. Another problem was land concentration, because this type of farming is profitable only when applied over large areas, consequently small agricultural producers have disappeared as land became concentrated in the hands of large producers and corporations, most notably Monsanto.

Impacts

Environmental Impacts:
 A reduction in biodiversity caused by the replacement of natural ecosystems and small family production with large-scale transgenic soy monoculture
 Disappearance and fragmentation of natural habitat
 Deforestation of large wooded areas for agricultural use
 Desertification, soil depletion and erosion due to land transformation into monocultural agricultural areas
 The increase of indiscriminate fumigation favours a variety of soybean resistant to the herbicide
 Land and groundwater contamination caused by the intensive use of herbicide
 Growth of more resistant weeds, caused by increased use of herbicide over all kinds of crops, whether genetically modified or not.
Economic and social impacts:
 Violation of local communities’ food sovereignty: using most of available land for transgenic soy cultivation has reduced the land at the disposal of traditional crops grown for local sustenance
 The concentration of land among a few important landowners and the disappearance of medium and small producers facilitate the spread of multinational companies into the nation’s farmlands
 Displacement of several indigenous and peasant communities
 Increasing levels of unemployment in rural areas: the soy monoculture model leads to so-called "agriculture without farmers", caused by mechanising the planting and harvesting stages
 Serious damage to health due to the massive use of agrotoxin agents (Glyphosate, Endosulfan, etc...) used for the fumigation of GM soy fields.

CONFLICT TIMELINE

1901: Pharmacist and chemist John Francis Queeny, founds the Monsanto firm in Saint Louis, Missouri as a chemical company specialising in saccharin production, the first artificial sweetener, for the Coca Cola corporation. In the 1920’s, Monsanto begins producing sulfuric acid and synthetic fibers.

1929: Monsanto buys the Swann Chemical Company, which has just developed a new chemical compound called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), used in the electrical industry as coolant for transformers. In the 1940’s, Monsanto begins specialising in dioxin production and starts marketing the dioxin herbicide 245T, which mixed with the herbicide 24D, produced by Dow Chemical, became the infamous "Agent Orange". This chemical weapon was used by the US Air Force in the Vietnam War for defoliating forests where the Viet Cong guerillas were hiding.

1971: As a result of several studies on the dangers of dioxin to human health, Agent Orange is banned. Vietnam War veterans demand and obtain compensation from Monsanto for damages suffered as a result of exposure to this deadly substance. No Vietnamese citizen has ever been compensated. In the 1980’s, Monsanto enters in the agricultural biotechnology sector thanks to the invention and marketing of glyphosate, an organophosphate compound used as the primary active agent in several herbicides. Monsanto patents glyphosate - the European patent expires in 1994 - and becomes the leading glyphosate-based herbicide producing company in the world.

1977: PCBs produced by Monsanto are prohibited in the United States. In 1982 PCB contamination causes the evacuation of the city of Times Beach, Illinois.

1980: The State of New Jersey creates the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission, the first State commission established to study the effects of Agent Orange on human health. The Pointman project is the name given to the Commission’s research project, which is halted in 1996 by Senator Christine Todd Whitman.

1983: PCB production is prohibited in Italy. May 22, 1992: In Nairobi, Kenya, theConvention on biological diversity (CBD) is adopted, together with the Climate Change Convention and the Convention against Desertification, collectively known as the 3 Rio Conventions.

1996: Marketing of Round Up Soy is approved in Europe, becoming the only genetically modified soy variety that can be bought and sold throughout the European Union.

March 1996: Felipe Solà, Argentina’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, signs Resolution 167 authorising the production and sale of Monsanto’s genetically modified RR soy in Argentina. The dossier evaluating the possible effects of RR soy introduction into Argentina is only 136 pages long: 108 pages of which are written by Monsanto. The procedures surrounding the signing of Resolution 167 present certain contradictions: in particular Solà is only authorised by the Ministry of Economy’s Department for Legal Affairs to sign it without waiting for the opinion of scientists and scholars. Read the article by Horatio Verbitsky: Verano del 1996: El escandaloso expediente de la soja transgenica published by the magazine ‘Page 12’.

January 1997: The New York’s General Attorney office forces Monsanto to withdraw misleading advertisements that presents Round Up as a biodegradable, non environmentally harmful herbicide product.

August 1997: Aiming to achieve greater productivity by specialising, Monsanto splits into two companies: Solutia works with the traditional chemical industry, while Monsanto continues its work on agricultural biotechnology.

October 1997: Governments ignore an appeal by the UN General Assembly Biosafety Working Group to withdraw Monsanto’s RR soy from the market. 1998: The Delta & Pine Land company creates and patents a technique called "the technology protection system", which genetically modifies plants making them infertile. Monsanto buys Delta & Pine Land and obtains permission from the United States Department of Agriculture to patent a seed sterilisation technique, known as "terminator technology". Later, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) bans this terminator technology.

1998: The British magazine The Ecologist publishes a dossier denouncing the social and environmental impacts caused by the Monsanto multinational company.

1999: Monsanto merges with the Pharmacia Upjohn company. May 24, 1999: The British newspaper The Guardian reports that Monsanto’s analysis of the dangers by GM soy on human health are conducted on GM soybean seeds which are not treated with Round Up, while the soy sold and consumed is in fact treated with this herbicide.

January 2000: The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is adopted in Montreal.

2001: The Mothers of Ituzaingó Anexo, a neighborhood movement from the outskirts of Córdoba, Argentina, protests against glyphosate-based fumigation. These women denounce an increase in cancer deaths due to poisoning, caused by glyphosate fumigation of fields planted with GM soy.

July 2001: As part of a program funded by the Belgian Government, different university research teams and scientific institutions find "DNA of unknown origin" in RR soy samples: this means that the soy genome analysed was different from the one described and patented by Monsanto when obtaining a marketing license in 1996.

2002: The Ministry of Public Health National Environmental Management Plan, in collaboration with the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), publishes a study conducted in the village of Bigand, a province of Santa Fe, to “determine the vulnerability of communities exposed to herbicides and pesticides”. After this study revealing the enormous impact of agrotoxin use on human health, the Ministry of Public Health never publishes material on agrotoxins again.

January 2002: The Global Environment Facility (GEF)) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launch a project on the risks of across-the-border transporting of GMOs, addressing developing countries after the adoption of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

2003: Farmers from the village of Cologne Loma Senés, in the province of Formosa, denounce the harmful effects of glyphosate on human health. Following these complaints, Judge Silvia Sevilla, bans glyphosate fumigation. In 2007 she is removed from office due to "mismanagement of her duties", while the use of glyphosate is not suspended.

2003: Via Campesina, the Brazilian Landless Movement and other associations supporting food sovereignty, launch their “Seeds are the Patrimony of Humanity" campaign, during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is a campaign against seed patenting and multinationals monopoly of agricultural technologies.

April 26, 2004: Dr. Jorge Kaczewer, a physician and researcher at the University of Buenos Aires, publishes the article Toxicologìa del glifosato: riesgos para la salud humana reporting the impacts of glyphosate on the environment and human health.

January 2005: Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR), founded in the mid 1990’s to fight the spread of the agribusiness model, issues a statement expressing a clear rejection of the document El boom de la soja: Bendición o maldición para los bosques y sabanas de América del sur that proposes a sustainable soybean model, affirming: "We reject it because it is based on the acceptance of a globalised soy model, managed at all stages of production by the multinationals firms in the agrochemical sector (...). We must regain our national dignity and denounce the agro-export model based on soy monoculture imposed by the large biotechnology companies. We should return to producing seeds, recover our genetic heritage and create an alternative agricultural model, based on respect for food sovereignty and local territorial development (...). GRR considers the proposal a shameful attempt by first world environmental groups, NGOs, and their local representatives to collaborate with those multinationals firms...we are an experiment in biotechnology packaging, a laboratory for multinational companies, a colonial Argentina".

March 2006: The Environmental Directorate of Cordoba Municipality analyses the blood of 30 children living in the Ituzaingó Anexo district: 23 of them show high rates of agrotoxins. (Read the article “El veneno que asolò el barrio de Ituzaingò Anexo”)

September 3, 2006: The newspaper La Capital, in the Santa Fe province, publishes an article denouncing the use of children for fumigation operations in Las Petacas. Children are given flags, nicknamed "banderilleros", to indicate where to use the pesticide. This illegal child labor practice includes shift work lasting "from dawn to dusk" and children are not protected against the pesticide, as they are sprayed by this toxic cloud together with the fields. (Read the interview to "Flag children"). April 2007: The Movimiento Campesino de Santiago del Estero (MOCASE/Peasant Movement of Santiago del Estero) holds two-days public event on the issue of peasant identity and food sovereignty.

December 2007: Passing of the Law on Minimum Funding for the Environmental Protection of Native Woods, known as National Law 26331/07 (Full Text here: Ley de presupuestos minimos de protecciòn de los Bosques nativos). The law states that each provincial government must develop a Territorial Organisation of Native Forests plan, with participation from local communities, dividing forests into three categories based on several criteria. The Territorial Organisations goal is to regulate territorial logging activities so as to protect forest areas with the highest potential for biodiversity.

2008: The final results of a study, conducted by a team from the Italian Hospital of Rosario, about the agrotoxin effects on human health, made between 2004 and 2007, is published. The study, coordinated by Doctor Jorge Oliva and supported by theNational University of Rosario, ECOSUR and INTA, analyses several diseases and cases of malformation around various locations in Humedo Pampa, in the Santa Fe province. The study claims that "the entire area has been fumigated for years with organochlorines (DDT, Heptachlor, Lindane and HCH), and from 1960 to 1978 the use of organophosphate (Parathion) was widespread. (...) Not to mention the overwhelming presence of glyphosate and its aggregates." Moreover, "According to FAO data, the use of agrochemicals throughout Argentina, especially in the Pampas Húmeda region, increases by over twenty percent due to herbicide used in transgenic soy cultivation".

March 11, 2008: The Government announces a new system of export taxes, which penalises large producers and leads to a fierce opposition from farmers in Argentina.

September 2008: A ‘Victims of Fumigation Meeting’ is held in the Colonia Caroya, Córdoba province, and leads to the Caroya Declaration.

January 2009: The Madres de Ituzaingó Anexo files a petition with the Supreme Court of Justice to demand the suspension of glyphosate spraying in the Córdoba province. They accuse National, provincial and municipal authorities of "illegally and voluntarily damaging, altering and restricting our rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, to health and life in a natural uncontaminated environment."

January 2009: The Córdoba Court of Justice bans glyphosate fumigation in areas near the Ituzaingó Anexo district."Fumigating near urban areas violates the Provincial Law on agrotoxin regulations and constitutes a criminal offense of environmental contamination, punishable with ten years in prison," says lawyer Carlos Matheu. This measure against fumigation identifies two herbicides considered dangerous to human health: endosulfan and glyphosate.

February 2009: Serious flooding occurs in the Tartagal area of the Salta province, caused by the indiscriminate cutting down of trees as agricultural boundaries advance. "Large-scale deforestation to create space for soy cultivation over the last years in the Salta province is the main cause of these floods. (...) Unfortunately, despite a similar phenomenon occurring in 2006, the following year Governor Romero increases the deforestation permits, leading to the destruction of 400,000 hectares of forests." Read the study: Tartagal, crònica de una tragedia anunciada.

March 2009: The Córdoba Court of Justice bans glyphosate fumigation after protests carried out by the Mothers of Ituzaingó Anexo, a neighborhood on the outskirts of the provincial capital Córdoba. They denounce the fact that 200 out of 5000 residents have cancer. The protests have been ongoing since 2001.

April 2009: The Córdoba Coordinadora en Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (Coordinator for the Defense of Water and Life/ CCODAV), formed by various citizen associations and committees, holds a march to protest against agrotoxin water contamination. The march, part of the National Campaign “Paren de Fumigar” (Stop the Fumigation), demands: the closure of the open-air canal "Los Molinos Cordoba" that runs for 64 Km (39 miles) through transgenic soy fields sprayed with toxic chemicals (glyphosate, endosulfan, etc..) and provides water to different parts of the city, such as Villa el Libertador, San Vicente, Alberdi and others; the withdrawal of the Suez-Roggio (Aguas Cordobesas/ Córdoba Water) company that manages the city drinking water service; the implementation of epidemiological studies on contaminated water; free medical care to families and victims of fumigation.

April 13, 2009: The National newspaper ‘Page 12’ publishes Dario Aranda’s article El tòxico de los campos, showing the results of a research conducted on glyphosate toxicity by Dr. Andres Carrasco, scientist at the Institute of Public Research (CONICET) and director of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires (UBA). "Minimum concentrations of glyphosate, lower than those used in agriculture, can produce negative effects on the morphology of embryos," says the report, and glyphosate "can cause intestinal problems, heart disease, congenital malformations and alterations at the neuronal level."

April 15, 2009: The Argentine Association of Environmental Attorneys files a petition with the Supreme Court of Justice to demand the suspension of glyphosate sales.

April 20, 2009: The Ministry of Defense prohibits transgenic soy cultivation on military compound territories.

April 21, 2009: The newspapers "El Clarin" and "La Nacion" publish articles which question the study on glyphosate toxicity conducted by researcher Andres Carrasco. This is the beginning of a campaign aimed at discrediting and slandering Dr. Carrasco, coordinator of the scientific team that carried out the research.

May 7, 2009: A study entitled “Stop Fumigations”, on the consequences of agrotoxins in transgenic soy cultivation, and including testimonies of fumigation victims from the provinces of Cordoba and Santa Fe, is published. This study is part of "Paren De Fumigation", an on-going campaign by Grupo de Reflexion Rural and other organisations, such as CEPRONAT (Documentation Centre for the Environmental Protection of Santa Fe Province). To learn more, read the article Argentina : A Report on the uses of Agrotoxins.

May 21, 2009: During a public hearing, a proposal by the Córdoba Territorial Organisation for Native Forests is submitted, with the support of several associations, including the Commission for Territorial Organization of Native Forests (COTBN, Córdoba Peasants Movement, Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA), Ecosistemas Argentinos, FUNAM, CEDHA; etc.

June 2009: The Observatory on Multinational Corporations (OET) releases the document “Glysophate use in the Metropolitan area of Buenos Aires”.

June 2009: The Colombian Cotton Farmers Association, Conalgodon, accuses Monsanto of spreading misleading information about transgenic seeds, considered the main cause of crop destruction by farmers. Monsanto says it is willing to compensate the losses with US$640,000, but its proposal is rejected.

June 2, 2009: The online version of El Diario publishes an interview with biologist Raul Montenegro, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize for Ecology in 2004.The scientist explains how soy monoculture compromises food sovereignty and the chance to diversify food production. "Productive diversification is generally associated with an integrated and humane food policy (...) therefore, beyond environmental and health disasters, taking up 55 percent of our productive farmland with soy, seriously compromises our ability to access a diversified and complete diet", says Montenegro. The biologist also denounces the lack of efficient controls on this production model, an excessive bureaucratization of institutional bodies and a convergence of interests involving the Argentine Government and multinational companies. According to him, "the Government and the most greedy producers are on the same side — even if, from time to time, they state alleged differences about the tax burden."

June 5, 2009: The National Institute of Environmental Studies (ISEA) hosts the "Public health and scientific autonomy: Research, agrotoxins and health" Seminar, attended by several associations, including the ‘Ituzaingó Anexo Mothers’ group and the ‘Paren de Fumigar’collective of Córdoba. The seminar goal is to promote and support the establishment of an independent scientific research on the consequences of agrotoxin use, based on Dr. Andres Carrasco glyphosate toxicity studies.

June 24, 2009: Several protest rallies "in defense of native forests", against random deforestation and the indiscriminate advance in agricultural frontiers, are held in eight cities throughout the Córdoba province. The event is promoted by the Commission for Territorial Organization of Native Forests (COTBN).

June 25, 2009: The province of Córdoba hosts the "Encuentro Por Los Bosques" (Encounter for the Forests) conference, supported by the Commission for Territorial Organization of Native Woods (COTBN). Participants demand full obedience to National Law 26.331 and Provincial law 7543, the immediate suspension of logging activities and the application of effective measures to protect forests in the province of Córdoba.

June 2009: Gilles Eric Seralini, the Director of the Committee of Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN), based in France, and one of Europe’s leading experts on agrotoxins, states that "glyphosate causes the death of human embryonic cells". Seralini carries out research studies on human embryos cells, umbilical cords and placenta, concluding that "even when diluted a thousand times, the herbicide Round Up can cause the death of human embryonic cells, produce malformations, miscarriages, hormonal, genital or reproductive organ problems, and several types of cancer."

4-5 July 2009: The Eighth ‘Victims of Fumigation’ meeting takes place in Anisacate, in the Córdoba province.

July 7, 2009: The Government of Salta enacts the provisions of the National Forest Act over its forests, as required by the Provincial Law 7543 from December 2008. 80 percent of the province’s forests is to be left untouched, while the remaining 20 percent can be subject to cutting with a prior environmental impact approval. Salta has one of the highest rates of deforestation among provinces, and according to the National Secretary for the Environment and Sustainable Development, between 2002 and 2006, 414,934 hectares were deforested — double the rate of the period 1998-2002.

22 July 2009: The Pulsar agency website reports that judicial authorities decided to close the El Semillero Cultural Center of Villa Ciudad Parque, in Valle de Calamuchita, in the Córdoba province. This is a space with community gardens and a library, self-managed by members of the Semillas del Sur collective and other organisations actively engaged in the fight against agrotoxin contamination.

24, 25, 26 July 2009: The Tenth Meeting of Union of Citizen Assemblies (UAC) against the “looting of our natural resources and their contamination, and in defense of food sovereignty and life" is held in the Jujuy province.

July 30: The land once owned by the El Semillero Cultural Center is put up for judicial auction. The Centre, supported by other regional associations, succeeds in buying the plot and remains there.

July 2009: Monsanto launches the third edition of its Semillero de Futuro, a corporate social responsibility program launched by Monsanto Argentina in the provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Cordoba, Corrientes, Misiones, Chaco, Santiago, Tucumán, San Luis and Salta.

July 2009: Monsanto buys WestBred LLC, a private company based in Montana, USA, owned by Barkley Seed Inc and specialising in studies of the genetic mapping of wheat. The goal is to include cereals in Monsanto’s portfolio of seeds that can be genetically modified, primarily to "solve the drought problem". For more information, read Monsanto Invests in Wheat through WestBred Acquisition.

December 2009: The Santa Fe Court of Appeal ratifies the "appeal for protection" filed by San Jorge residents, which prohibits fumigation directly onto fields within 800 meters of houses, or within 1500 meters from houses if sprayed by aircraft. They also grant the Government six months to demonstrate that the products used in such fumigations are not harmful to health. Read the Article

June 2011: In its report "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?", Earth Open Source presents the results of several months’ analysis of genetically modified crops that use Roundup; their findings show the presence of large quantities of a pathogen agent that can cause miscarriages and birth defects in animals.

Source: http://www.cdca.it/spip.php?article1611