WUNRN
LATIN AMERICA - WOMEN'S RESISTANCE,
ADVOCACY AGAINST HARMFUL CORPORATE AGROCHEMICALS
_________________________________________________________
Full News Release:
ARGENTINA - BIRTH DEFECTS, CANCER LINKED TO AGROCHEMICALS -
AP/ASSOCIATED PRESS INVESTIGATION
In this March 31, 2013, photo, Camila Veron, 2, born with multiple
organ problems and severely disabled, stands outside her home in Avia Terai, in
Chaco province, Argentina. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko
WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA RESIST MONSANTO CORPORATE PESTICIDES,
GENETICALLY MODIFIED AGRO-TOXIC SEEDS +
This year, on World
Food Day, 52 countries organized a Global Day of Action Against
Monsanto that became a catalyzer for several expressions of resistance
against this corporation.We look now at actions in three Latin American
countries, where women are taking the lead in resistance movements.
By AWID - Gabriela De Cicco
Founded in 1901, Monsanto is a multinational corporation responsible
for manufacturing genetically modified (GM) seeds using toxic chemicals,
designed to be sterile, creating ‘monocultures’, forcing farmers to buy seeds
each year. At the same time Monsanto is a world leader in the pesticide market supplying
the harmful pesticides used on the GMO crops.
Demands for organic seeds free of toxins
In El Salvador about 2,000 women from different rural areas
marched to a hotel where the Legislative Assembly Deputies were meeting, with
demands for the mainly the right-wing parties that were planning to vote in
favor of authorizing the sale of 11 agro-toxic products in the country.
According to Sara Guardado, president of Guaymango La Colmena Community Development
Association, in the Sonsonate municipality, “we were marching as women, for
the elimination of agro-toxics and for us to be able to produce our own food in
a way that it is good for our health, our families, our children, and for the
whole of El Salvador. We need autochthonous, not transgenic, seeds. That is
what we grow in our parcels, everything is organic".[1]
One of the agro-toxics in question is Paraquat, which makes up 50%
of the total imports of agrochemical products in El Salvador, and whose main
distributor is Semillas Burkard - previously owned by former president Alfredo
Cristiani and now the property of the transnational company Monsanto. The
product causes chronic kidney failure, with coastal areas particularly at risk,
as the cane and cotton crops there are being fumigated with Paraquat.
Resisting proposed legislation
In Chile, a Plant Breeders’ Bill was debated in the Senate in June
2013. After analyzing the proposed bill, the citizens' initiative Chile
without transgenics said this about the proposal: "it encourages
industrial-scale agriculture; facilitates an even greater concentration of
seeds and other agricultural supplies in the hands of a few transnational
companies; encourages inappropriate research and development; constitutes a
threat to food production sustainability; speeds up the reduction of
agricultural biodiversity and creates a space for bio-piracy to develop".
According to the collective, the bill does not include "any
protection for autochthonous species and vegetal varieties that exist in nature
and fails to protect agricultural, medicinal and other uses that are
traditional for peasants and Indigenous communities. The bill will also confer
rights to plant breeders to genetically engineer species and/or varieties, that
constitutes a first step towards acceptance of transgenic crops at a large
scale".
ANAMURI (National Rural and Indigenous Women's Association)
representative, Nancy Antillanca, said in the radio programme La Radio that, if passed, the Plant Breeders’ Bill
"will be a serious setback for the entire nation because to put it in
simple words, it will encourage the expansion of transgenics and genetic
pollution, by granting benefits and power to seed companies that will then
harass peasants, destroy their crops and confiscate their products". She
also pointed out the need to remember that the Chilean State "has again
failed to respect the ILO Convention 169, as Indigenous peoples have not been
consulted before the law, even though it is precisely these peoples who have
always worked the land and the seeds".
Public resistance for human and environmental health
Argentina’s remarkable economic recovery over the last ten years
is largely because of the "soy boom", which has given Argentina the
fastest growth rate in South America, but is also allegedly having devastating
health consequences for the local community due to genetically modified soy
seeds and the pesticides used with them.
Argentina used to be known as the "world's granary",
whose economy was based on cattle and crops, producing a large variety of
cereals and legumes. In the early 90s, the entire agricultural culture began to
change as Monsanto moved into the country and this has had dramatic effects on
the populations for whom agriculture is their livelihood with biodiversity in
the country diminishing rapidly.[2]
Malvinas Argentinas is a quiet municipality, 17 km’s away from the
capital of Cordoba province in the east of the country where Monsanto is
building a huge plant to manufacture corn seeds. The plant was scheduled to
begin operations in March 2014 but building was stopped on September 18, 2013
when residents blocked access to the site in organized resistance to the
construction of the plant. The residents have organized demonstrations and have
submitted a legal claim. On November 30, twenty people were injured in a
confrontation with anti-riot police who intervened after trucks were damaged in
an attempt by the construction union to break the blockade created by the
residents camping on the site.[3]
The community movement is largely made up of women because in
Malvinas Argentinas many people are suffering from respiratory diseases or
allergies caused by fumigations of crops in Cordoba province, one of the main
transgenic soy producers in Argentina. A growing number of cancer cases
and genetic malformations are also being reported.[4]
The arrival of Monsanto was the final provocation, together with
fear of illness and death that pushed many of them into action. María Torres
told Tierramérica that her son is already ill and with the
arrival of Monsanto he will only get worse. Another resident, Eli Leiria,
tested positive for glyphosate in her blood, according to her doctors reports
"it was as if a tornado had devastated my body".
Biologist Raúl Montenegro, who presides over the Foundation for
the Defense of the Environment states that "there is no official morbidity and
mortality monitoring to check if the increasing number of illnesses doctors are
seeing have been caused by pesticides. There is a lack of proper control of the
pesticides’ level in the blood, and also of an environmental monitoring process
that will detect these residues, for instance, in water tanks."
Even though the Argentinean president Cristina Fernández created a
National Research Commission on Agrochemicals in 2009, with a mandate to
research, prevent and treat their effects on human and environmental health,
the country is a sort of "transgenic paradise - as their permits are
granted on the basis of technical information provided mainly by the
biotechnology companies themselves", stated Montenegro.
Women, men, and in some cases also their children (boys and girls)
set up five blockade camps around the plant in Malvina Argentinas, taking turns
stopping trucks from entering the site. While fear for their children's health
has motivated many women, other people are hesitant to get involved for fear of
reprisals, and of losing their jobs with the municipality or the social welfare
benefits it provides. Several women residents have denied accusations being
spread by the media, that the resistance is being orchestrated by political
parties, Beba Figueroa said "What TV and newspapers are saying, that
political parties are involved, is not true... most of us are mothers who are
afraid for our children".[5]
Tierramérica reports "a survey conducted by two
Universities and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research
revealed that 87% of those consulted in the village want a referendum to decide
and 58% reject the Monsanto plant".
Read more about Monsanto in Argentina:
[1] http://voces.org.sv/2013/10/16/mujeres-marchan-contra-monsanto-en-el-salvador/
[2] The transgenic soy production boom: http://www.ecoportal.net/Temas_Especiales/Transgenicos/El_boom_de_la_produccion_de_soja_transgenica
[3]http://redlatinasinfronteras.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/argentina_cordoba-represion-en-defensa-de-la-multinacional-monsanto/
[4] “The University Environment and Health Network -
Fumigated Peoples' Doctors said that the fumigated area has reached 22 million
acres with soy, corn and other transgenic crops in 12 Argentinean provinces,
where 12 million people live".
[5]
http://www.ipsnoticias.net/2013/11/argentinos-versus-monsanto-tenemos-el-monstruo-encima/