Tech | March 14, 2013 | 22 comments

Argentina's Bad Seeds

source: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2013/03/201331313434142322.html

JanforGore
By Glenn Ellis

As I flew in to Buenos Aires to make this film, all the talk was of President Cristina Kirchner’s latest gambit. Her foreign minister had pulled out of a meeting with the British foreign secretary to discuss the Falklands (or the Malvinas depending on your outlook). And for the people I rubbed up against in Argentina’s smart and chic capital, on discovering I was English, this, along with Maradona’s ‘hand of god’ moment, was the topic on everybody’s lips. "We won the war", they would say. "After the fighting we got rid of our dictators but you had another 10 years of Thatcher."

When I explained I was in the country to cover the soya boom, which has given Argentina the fastest growth rate in South America, but also allegedly caused devastating malformations in children, there was a look of disbelief. "Here, in Argentina? Why haven’t we heard about it?"

A good question: why had not anyone heard about it? And when I ventured a little further explaining I also wanted to cover what is best described as a dirty war in the North of the country where campesinos are being driven off their land, and sometimes killed, to make way for soya plantations - the bemusement increased. “That’s historical" people would say, "it’s been going on since the time of the conquistadores." So when I arrived with my crew at Argentina’s second city, Cordoba, 700 kilometres North West of the capital, to meet Alternative Nobel Laureate Professor Raul Montenegro, I was not quite sure what to expect.

Montenegro, a world-renowned biologist, looked the part of a pioneer, in khaki shirt and jungle boots. "I have pesticide in me", he said, almost as soon as he opened the door. "Here we all have pesticide in our bodies because the land is saturated with it. And it is a huge problem. In Argentina biodiversity is diminishing. Even in national parks, because pesticides don’t recognise the limit of the park." Montenegro is a man in a hurry. "You must see for yourself", he said pointing to his Land Rover and taking us a short drive out of Cordoba to a slight rise in the vast plain which surrounds the city. Here, as far as the eye can see, endless acres of soya stretched to the horizon. "More than 18 million hectares are covered by this GMO soya but it’s not solely a matter of soya because over this plant on this huge surface more than 300 million litres of pesticide are used."

More at the link
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Some responses removed to keep the thread on topic.

And as far as "blackballing" goes here, perhaps that may not be the word that best fits but nevertheless I and others do see the changes here and the lack of response and caring for these topics/ issues that once had both and it is discouraging to say the least. That is all I will have to say on it here anymore.
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22 comments // Argentina's Bad Seeds // Video

  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • MolliBlum
    • +1
      MolliBlum  

    • Wow. This rang distant memory bells... it took me a while to find what I was looking for.

      The scary thing is just how long this has been known, and how little it has been reported in the interim -- airbrushed out of the media, as it were.

      Way back in 2004, NewScientist magazine ran an article:

      "A YEAR ago, Colonia Loma Senés was just another rural backwater in the north of Argentina. But that was before the toxic cloud arrived. "The poison got blown onto our plots and into our houses," recalls local farmer Sandoval Filem-n. "Straight away our eyes started smarting. The children's bare legs came out in rashes." The following morning the village awoke to a scene of desolation. "Almost all of our crops were badly damaged. I couldn't believe my eyes," says Sandoval's wife, Eugenia. Over the next few days and weeks chickens and pigs died, and sows and nanny goats gave birth to dead or deformed young. Months later banana trees were deformed and stunted and were still not bearing edible fruit.
      The villagers quickly pointed the finger at a neighbouring farm whose tenants were growing genetically modified soya, engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate..."

      http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18224436.100-argentinas-bitter-harvest.htm...

      Unfortunately the rest of that article is subscriber-only.
      But it was also reported in other media at the time:

      "Seven years after GM soya was introduced to Argentina as an economic miracle for poor farmers, researchers claim it is causing an environmental crisis, damaging soil bacteria and allowing herbicide-resistant weeds to grow out of control.

      Soya has become the cash crop for half of Argentina's arable land, more than 11m hectares (27m acres), most situated on fragile pampas lands on the vast plains. After Argentina's economic collapse, soya became a vital cash export providing cattle feed for Europe and elsewhere.

      Now researchers fear that the heavy reliance on one crop may bring economic ruin.

      The GM soya, grown and sold by Monsanto, is the company's great success story. Programmed to be resistant to Roundup, Monsanto's patented glyphosate herbicide, soya's production increased by 75% over five years to 2002 and yields increased by 173%, raising £3bn profits for farmers hard-hit financially.

      However, a report in New Scientist magazine says that because of problems with the crops, farmers are now using twice as much herbicide as in conventional systems. "

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/apr/16/gm.food

    • 2 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • MolliBlum:

      This has been blacked out by the media with the Obama administration actually committing to Monsanto to now invade Africa with this poison. The layers of corruption go so far up and down the chain. I'm sure you also recall the WIkileaks memo regarding the French ambassador I believe being told that to not accept GMOs would have dire consequences. They have done all in their power to intimidate scientists, hide reports and put farmers out of business. Now, it appears they have even stooped to hiring mercenaries to torture and kill people who will not give up their land to grow these seeds. Never in my life would I think people would have a war over soy. We are beyond the looking glass.

    • 2 months ago
  • MolliBlum
    • +1
      MolliBlum  
    • JanforGore:

      Oh, yes indeed, that notorious cable was widely reported in Europe:

      "Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU... The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory,"
      (US Ambassador Craig Stapleton)

      But what's with the mercenaries?

    • 2 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • MolliBlum
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Image
    • MolliBlum:

      Moved from above:

      The video report above refers to them. It is also known that Monsanto had dealings with Blackwater. I'm sure they discussed what the MO would be once farmers began to stand up to them.

      Here is an article on that from The Nation.

      http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops#

      Jeremy Scahill | This article appeared in the October 4, 2010 edition of The Nation. .

      Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to US and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations, including Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and banking giants Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents obtained by The Nation. Blackwater's work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies owned by Blackwater's owner and founder, Erik Prince: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC). Prince is listed as the chairman of both companies in internal company documents, which show how the web of companies functions as a highly coordinated operation. Officials from Total Intelligence, TRC and Blackwater (which now calls itself Xe Services) did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.
      l One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.

      end of excerpt.

    • 2 months ago
  • MolliBlum
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  

    • Well it would appear that except for a couple of people here it looks like I am being blackballed (? ;-0) Hard not to think that sometimes although it is apparent participation on the whole here has dropped tremendously which is also not surprising considering the level of many of the conversations.... Oh well, just an observation.

      How many will have to die for this? How many care? Anyone watch this and see what it is doing to the children who live near these soya fields? How can a company get away with this? Because this government and yes that means the Obama administration as well allows it. And as this well done report shows it is sprayed with millions of tons of Glyphosate and I doubt it is all washed off by the time it gets to your store shelf. I also remember when Argentina was on the brink of bankruptcy and I remember who Bush sent there to meet with "business" leaders... his brother Jebby and his girlfriend Katherine Harris who helped him steal the US election. Now look. This goes deep and is a direct reflection on our apathy....

    • 2 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • JanforGore:

      We could all use some psychological help in dealing with this insanity. I finally broke down and sought a psychologist last month to deal with the depression these horror story bring. I never meant it as a personal attack on you and include myself when stating that this whole thing is a huge ego problem.
      What I don't like is being made to feel like a traitor for supporting Obama.

    • 2 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
  • MolliBlum
    • +1
      MolliBlum  
    • coolplanet:

      Just wanted to say, having followed the conversation, that I don’t think anyone’s being “blackballed”, though it may sometimes look that way.

      However, I do think that the structure of the community, and with that, the content, of Current has changed quite markedly, even in the short time I’ve been here, mainly due to the influx of video-gamers who treat the site as just another competition to win “points” (badges?) and “move up” to new “levels”.

      So, yes, serious items do tend to slip into the background… which makes it more difficult to find them amongst all the "look at me!" / "go get'em!" dross.

      However, the serious content is still here, thanks to people like JanForGore and yourself, no matter what your differences (vive la difference!) may be. I hope you will both continue to persevere and wait out the storm to see what changes AlJazeera brings.

    • 2 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • 0
      coolplanet  
    • MolliBlum:

      Beautifully said and I completely agree.
      And thank you for the sweet compliment. I try hard to post meaningful stories even when I sometimes devolve into cheep comedy.....;)
      You are a breath of pure air!

    • 2 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
  • artemis6
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