GM soya increases poverty, threatens health in South America

Further to our previous articles about organic food, and about Monsanto and GM, this post is about an article in GM Watch, which in turn showed an English translation of the original Svenska Dagbladet (or SvD for short) news article about the disastrous effects of GM soya cultivation in South America. Indeed, the conversion of South American agriculture to large-scale, industrial farming of genetically modified soya harms the environment, increases poverty, and threatening human health, two leading advocates for small farmers' rights have said to SvD during a visit to Sweden.

The small farmers' rights advocates Jorge Galeano and Jaime Weber laugh surprised when they hear about the Swedish GM debate in which GM soya is described as helping "end world hunger" or "ending reliance on pesticides".  The reality is very different.

The multinationals are talking about solving climate problems and food supply through GMO, but they are really only interested in making money... Their methods destroy traditional farming that provides food for our population and replaces it with soy, which goes into animal feed to provide meat for the West.- Jorge Galeano, farmer from Paraguay

Jorge Galeano, who grew up in a peasant farmer family in Eastern Paraguay, has personally experienced the horrors of being forced off his land (in 2005 he led the resistance to this in his village), and he is one of thousands of small farmers in Paraguay who have been forced off their land (brutally by paramilitaries, to say the least), land which they have cultivated for generations.

Today, Jorge Galeano is secretary of an organization that defends small farmers' rights and which visited Sweden by the invitation of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (Naturskyddsföreningen).  Galeano describes how fields that once grew crops for the traditional cuisine (including potatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, and beans) have been transformed into vast fields with only a single crop: GM soya. Soya is exported as cheap feed for animals in Europe and the USA.

With one person cultivating approximately 200 ha alone in a tractor (instead of one person cultivating 1 ha), many farm workers also lose their jobs and are forced to migrate to inner city slums and look for work, and the number of people living in poverty rose to 27% in Paraguay as a result.  The environment is also affected, as new roads built lead right into the sensitive areas of the Amazon and the Cerrado, which is a vast savannah with fragile ecosystems and vulnerable nutrient-poor soils.

We have come to Sweden to talk about how small farmers are affected by GM crops. We would like a development that protects life, nature and diversity, and that does not concentrate wealth in the hands of a few.- Jorge Galeano

Also present in Sweden with Jorge Galeano, was Jaime Weber who is the national co-ordinator in Brazil for the organisation RAP-AL (la Red de Acción en Plaguicidas y sus Alternativas de América Latina) which is an organisation which opposes pesticides and promotes alternatives to pesticides.  Weber works for sustainable and non-toxic organic agriculture, and also supports restoring intensively cultivated lands, which after a few years are abandoned because they have been turned into desert.

In Brazil the toxic and hazardous pesticides paraquat and endosulfan are still used. It is a myth that these are not used on GM crops. GM soybeans are sprayed just as much with paraquat [as non-GM].- Jaime Weber, national co-ordinator in Brazil for RAP-AL

The vast majority of Monsanto's GM soya is resistant to glyphosphate, a herbicide which is the active ingredient of Roundup (one of Monsanto's own pesticides), meaning the pesticide can be sprayed without damaging this GM soya, but the pesticide is still highly toxic.  Furthermore, frequent usage of Roundup and cultivation of soya bean monocultures mean that many weeds are starting to develop resistance to Roundup.  As a result, GMO cultivation actually led to an increased usage of Roundup and other dangerous pesticides in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

And Jaime Weber also says that large farms regularly flout safe distances when spraying pesticides, so local residents get affected:

Both the spraying of conventional farming and GMO cultivation [pose] severe health risks to farm workers and those living around the fields.- Jaime Weber

This article illustrates why GM food really must be avoided, and that it is best to buy organic and local for our health and our planet.

Facts about soya and GM soya in South America

• Soya cultivation has increased very rapidly in South America over the past decade, where beans are often grown in vast monocultures.
• About 80% of the world's soya is used as feed for cows, pigs and chickens to make them grow fast.
• The United States accounts for 32% of world soya production, closely followed by Brazil (28%) and Argentina (21%).
• GM soya now accounts for 77% of world soya production.
• GM soya is now virtually the only variety of soya grown in Argentina, Paraguay, and Western Brazil.
• Within Brazil, GM-free soya is now only available from parts of Eastern Brazil. 

Original sources and links

• Genetically modified soy increases poverty, threatens health in South America - source, posted on 25/10/2010
• Småbönder förlorar jobben (Small-scale farmers will lose their jobs) - original article on the Svenska Dagbladet, 24/10/2010
• GM Watch website
• RAP-AL website
• Naturskyddsföreningen website (English version)