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NEWS
December
2nd 2002
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Soya Soya everywhere… As Argentina tumbles further into financial crisis, an inspiring popular rebellion has been spreading across the country. The revolt exploded on December 20th 2001, when over a million people took to the streets, banging their pots and pans, ousting the government and calling for ‘Que Se Vayan Todos’ - ‘they all must go’. This radical movement is demanding that the entire political class should leave the stage – politicians from every party, the supreme court, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the corporations, the banks – so that the people themselves can decide the fate of their economically crippled country. The political space that has opened up out of the chaos has seen amazingly creative response. From the ‘Trueque’ barter network which 7 million people are using instead of money, to ‘asambleas’- neighbourhood meetings based on consensus which have started to squat and develop social centres. Also workers occupying factories and self-managing their workplaces. The downside of this political chaos has seen multinationals running rampage, in particular our old friends, Monsanto. Monsanto arrived in Argentina in 1996, seducing farmers with the promise of Roundup Ready soybeans. Pretty soon over 90% agreed to adopt the technology which gave Monsanto a higher take-up rate among farmers in Argentina than in the whole of the USA. Argentina is now the 2nd biggest producer of GM crops after the USA. Looking at the crude statistics since the adoption of GM crop technology, Argentina’s total soya crop has doubled to 27 million tons, and exports have increased rapidly. However, this growth in output is solely a result of the increase in acreage under soybean cultivation, as farmers switch from maize, cotton and wheat production. In fact, RoundUp Ready soybeans have had a 5-6% lower yield, and Argentina’s farmers are now worse off, as the increase in soya production has caused global prices to drop. Biotech farming has also caused the dislocation of 300,000 small and medium farmers from their land, and the take over of farming by investment funds and ‘pooles de siembra’, big anonymous farm management companies. Of course, the increase in trade has been to the advantage of the big grain traders, Dreyfus, Cargill et al, who are also said to be evading taxes (to the tune of around US$1300 million) and regulation in the political chaos. Compare this to the $8000 million of external debt that Argentina had to pay this year. Argentina’s environment has also suffered. Native woodland has disappeared as the soya front has advanced. Sales figures suggest farmers are overdosing the 12 million hectares of land under GM cultivation with 80 million litres of herbicide each year; this has seriously damaged soil quality. Monsanto has not only infiltrated Argentina’s agriculture, but is now totally transforming the Argentinean diet. While much of the soya produced in Argentina is exported, Monsanto is also flooding local markets full of desperate hungry people with GM soya, usually used for animal feed, for human consumption. The generous grain traders are also donating 1 tonne in every 1000 tonnes of Argentinean soya as food aid through a ‘charity’ programme called ‘Soya Solidair’. This soya aid is everywhere, in homeless shelters and soup kitchens, and Monsanto is essentially being paid to distribute its soya – which it can’t find a market for in Europe – to the poor of Argentina. Cargill and Soya is not a traditional food for the Argentineans – it is generally grown as cattle feed. As the staple diet of milk and meat is being replaced by soya, aid agencies are having to send out recipes telling people how to cook it. Meanwhile, various native grains are no longer available in the grocery shops of Buenos Aires. There are also serious potential health considerations that will result from an over reliance on soya in the diet. Argentina is a crucial market for Monsanto. During the nineties, they invested heavily in Argentinean and Brazilian seed companies as well as offering extensive credit to farmers to purchase their seeds and pesticides. With the Argentinean economy collapsing, Monsanto has had to write off around $2 billion of ‘goodwill’, as the seed companies have now become worthless and, with the massive devaluation of the peso, much of the credit extended to farmers will never be recovered. This explains why they are trying to squeeze every last penny out of an impoverished Argentina. Times are also hard for Monsanto. Now purely an agrochemical and seed business, it is under pressure from persistently low commodity prices and industry consolidation – bigger competitors competing for a shrinking market. Before the economic collapse, Argentina had been a major customer. The irony of this all is the fact that many Argentineans, even the left wingers, see genetically engineered soya as their salvation. Soya animal feed is Argentina’s main export, and its only way of generating foreign income. With the major presence of Monsanto, the Argentinean people have had little access to information about the health and environmental risks of GM crops, and little information about the worldwide rejection of GM technology. More than this, there must be a realisation that if Argentina does not want to repeat the cycle of debt and structural adjustment imposed on it by the IMF, it must break free from the corporations that are exporting its wealth and destroying its economy. A more sustainable and small scale agriculture that invests in the long term health of the environment must form a part of the solution. In solidarity with the first anniversary of the uprising,
grassroots groups in Argentina and worldwide are calling for a weekend
of action on the 20th-21st December. This will show support for the
people of Argentina who are moving forward with real social revolution,
whilst also supporting their resistance to the onslaught on multinationals
blatantly barging their way into the party. 1) ‘Monsanto Earnings Down on Bad Debt’
by Julianne Johnson. 23 July 2002. Agweb.com |