Monsanto Poisons a Whole Country!
Jay Will
A expanding ensemble of doctors and scientists is forewarning that their uncontrolled usage could be accountable for the increasing number of health issues turning up in hospitals all across the South American nation.
American biotechnology has changed Argentina into the world’s third-largest soybean producer, however the chemicals powering the boom are not restricted to soy and cotton and corn fields.
They regularly poison homes and classrooms and drinking water. A expanding ensemble of doctors and scientists is forewarning that their uncontrolled usage could be accountable for the increasing number of health issues turning up in hospitals all across the South American nation. In the center of Argentina’s soybean business, house-to-house surveys of 65,000 folks in farming communities discovered cancer rates 2 to 4 times higher than the national average, in addition to higher rates of hypothyroidism and chronic respiratory illnesses.
Associated Press photographer Natacha Pisarenko expended months documenting the situation in farming communities across Argentina.
The majority of provinces in Argentina restrict spraying pesticides and other agrochemicals next to dwellings and schools, with bans varying in range from 50 meters to as much as several kilometers from populated sections. The Associated Press discovered numerous cases of soybeans planted only a few feet from residences and schools, and of chemicals mixed and loaded onto tractors within residential neighborhoods. In the last 20 years, agrochemical spraying has enhanced eightfold in Argentina- from 9 million gallons in 1990 to 84 million gallons currently.
Glyphosate, the major component in Monsanto’s Round Up products, is utilized roughly eight to ten times more per acre than in the United States. Yet Argentina does not implement national standards for farm chemicals, leaving rule-making to the provinces and enforcement to the municipalities. The outcome is a hodgepodge of widely overlooked regulations that leave folks hazardously exposed.
In this March 29, 2013, photo, former farmworker Fabian Tomasi, 47,
shows the condition of his emaciated body as he stands inside his home
in Basavilbaso, in Entre Rios province, Argentina. Tomasis job was to
keep the crop dusters flying by quickly filling their tanks but he says
he was never trained to handle pesticides. Now he is near death from
polyneuropathy. “I prepared millions of liters of poison without any
kind of protection, no gloves, masks or special clothing. I didn’t know
anything. I only learned later what it did to me, after contacting
scientists,” he said. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this April 16, 2013, photo, Felix San Roman walks on his property
in Rawson, in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. San Roman says that when
he complained about clouds of chemicals drifting into his yard, the
sprayers beat him up, fracturing his spine and knocking out his teeth.
“This is a small town where nobody confronts anyone, and the authorities
look the other way,” San Roman said. “All I want is for them to follow
the existing law, which says you can’t do this within 1,500 meters.
Nobody follows this. How can you control it?” (AP Photo/Natacha
Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 24, 2013, photo, a tractor known as a “mosquito” dusts a
field near Parana, in the Entre Rios province, Argentina. Most
provinces forbid spraying next to homes and schools, ranging in distance
from 50 meters to as much as several kilometers from populated areas.
But The Associated Press found many cases of soybeans planted only a few
feet from homes and schools, and of chemicals mixed and loaded onto
tractors inside residential neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this April 1, 2013 photo, Aixa Cano, 5, who has hairy moles all
over her body that doctors can’t explain, sits on a stoop outside her
home in Avia Terai, in Chaco province, Argentina. Although its nearly
impossible to prove, doctors say Aixas birth defect may be linked to
agrochemicals. In Chaco, children are four times more likely to be born
with devastating birth defects since biotechnology dramatically expanded
farming in Argentina. Chemicals routinely contaminate homes, classrooms
and drinking water. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this May 2, 2013 photo, empty agrochemical containers including
Monsanto’s Round Up products lay discarded at a recycling center in
Quimili, Santiago del Estero province, Argentina. Instead of a lighter
chemical burden in Argentina, agrochemical spraying has increased
eightfold, from 9 million gallons in 1990 to 84 million gallons today.
Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up products, is used
roughly eight to ten times more per acre than in the United States. Yet
Argentina doesnt apply national standards for farm chemicals, leaving
rule-making to the provinces and enforcement to the municipalities. The
result is a hodgepodge of widely ignored regulations that leave people
dangerously exposed. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this April 1, 2013, photo, Silvia Alvarez leans against her red
brick home while keeping an eye on her son, Ezequiel Moreno, who was
born with hydrocephalus, in Gancedo, in Chaco province, Argentina.
Alvarez blames continuous exposure to agrochemical spraying for two
miscarriages and her son’s health problems. Chaco provincial birth
reports show that congenital defects quadrupled in the decade after
genetically modified crops and their related agrochemicals arrived. (AP
Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this March 31, 2013, photo, Erika, right, and her twin sister
Macarena, who suffer from chronic respiratory illness, stand inside
their home in Avia Terai, in Chaco province, Argentina. The twins’
mother, Claudia Sariski, whose home has no running water, says she
doesn’t let her children drink from the discarded pesticide containers
she keeps in her dusty backyard. But her chickens do, and she has no
other water to wash the family’s clothes with. (AP Photo/Natacha
Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 24, 2013, photo, a tractor used for spraying
agrochemicals is reflected in a car’s side view mirror on a road in
Parana, in Entre Rios province, Argentina. Glyphosate represents
two-thirds of all agrochemicals used in Argentina, but resistance to
pesticides is forcing farmers to mix in other poisons such as 2,4,D,
which the U.S. military used in “Agent Orange” to defoliate jungles
during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Natcha Pisarenko)
In this May 31, 2013 photo, girls use slingshots next to a biotech
soybean plantation in Avia Terai, in Chaco province, Argentina. The
country’s entire soybean crop and nearly all its corn and cotton have
become genetically modified in the 17 years since St. Louis-based
Monsanto Company promised huge yields with fewer pesticides using its
patented seeds and chemicals. Instead, the agriculture ministry says
agrochemical spraying has increased eightfold, from 9 million gallons in
1990 to 84 million gallons today. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 24, 2013 photo, students play soccer during recess at a
rural school near Concepcion del Uruguay, Entre Rios province,
Argentina. Teachers say the farm that abuts their school yard has been
illegally sprayed with pesticides, even during class time. In Entre
Rios, teachers reported that sprayers failed to respect legally required
50 meter setbacks outside 18 schools, and doused 11 of them while
students were in session. Five teachers have since filed police
complaints. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this April 16, 2013, photo, activist Oscar Alfredo Di Vincensi
talks on a cell phone inside his tent during his one-man hunger strike
demanding that agrochemical spraying not be allowed within 1,000 meters
of homes, in the main square of Alberti, in Buenos Aires province,
Argentina. Earlier this year, Di Vincensi stood in a field waving a
court order barring spraying within 1,000 meters of homes in his town of
Alberti; a tractor driver doused him in pesticide. (AP Photo/Natacha
Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 25, 2013, photo, cattle are corralled near the town of
Berabevu, in Santa Fe province, Argentina. As Argentine ranchers turn to
higher-profit soybeans, formerly grass-fed cattle are fattened on corn
and soy meal in feedlots. Argentinas entire soy crop and nearly all its
corn have become genetically modified in the 17 years since St.
Louis-based Monsanto Company promised huge yields with fewer pesticides
using its patented seeds and chemicals. Soy cultivation alone has
tripled to 47 million acres, transforming a nation once known for its
grass-fed cattle into the world’s third largest soybean producer. (AP
Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this March 31, 2013, photo, Erika, left, and her twin sister
Macarena, who suffer from chronic respiratory illness, play in their
backyard near recycled agrochemical containers filled with water that is
used for flushing their toilet, feeding their chickens and washing
their clothes, near the town of Avia Terai, in Chaco province,
Argentina. The twins’ mother, Claudia Sariski, whose home has no running
water, says she doesn’t let her children drink the water from the
discarded pesticide containers. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
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. Doctors told Camila’s mother,
Silvia Achaval that agrochemicals may be to blame. It’s nearly
impossible to prove that exposure to a specific chemical caused an
individual’s cancer or birth defect, but doctors say these cases merit a
rigorous government investigation. “They told me that the water made
this happen, because they spray a lot of poison here,” said Achaval. (AP
Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this July 8, 2013 photo, Dr. Andres Carrasco, a molecular
biologist at the University of Buenos Aires, pauses during an interview
in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Carrasco found that injecting very low doses
of glyphosate, a weed-killer, into embryos can change levels of
retinoic acid, causing the same sort of spinal defects in frogs and
chickens that doctors are increasingly registering in communities where
farm chemicals are ubiquitous. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 23, 2013, photo, empty pesticide containers ready for
recycling are collected inside an enclosure by the farming business
association in Gualeguaychu, in Entre Rios province, Argentina. Widely
ignored Argentine health minister guidelines recommend perforating empty
containers to prevent reuse by residents. The association says the
containers will be recycled into plastic tubing. (AP Photo/Natacha
Pisarenko)
In this May 3, 2013, photo, students stand outside their rural school
in Pozo del Toba, in Santiago del Estero province, Argentina. Most
Argentine provinces limit how close spraying can be done in populated
areas, with setbacks ranging from as little as 50 meters to as much as
several kilometers. But The Associated Press found many cases of
soybeans planted only a few feet from homes and schools, and chemicals
mixed and loaded onto tractors inside residential neighborhoods. (AP
Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 26, 2013, photo, Sofia Gatica participates in a protest
to block trucks from entering the site where Monsanto Company is
building its largest Latin American seed production plant, in the town
of Malvinas Argentinas, in Cordoba province, Argentina. The country’s
entire soy crop and nearly all its corn and cotton have become
genetically modified in the 17 years since the St. Louis-based company
promised larger yields. Agrochemical spraying has increased eightfold.
After Gatica’s newborn died of kidney failure, she filed a complaint in
Cordoba province that led last year to Argentina’s first criminal
convictions for illegal spraying. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this April 16, 2013 photo, soybeans ready for harvest are bathed
in afternoon light near Rawson, in Buenos Aires province, Argentina.
American biotechnology has turned Argentina into the worlds
third-largest soybean producer, but the chemicals powering the boom
arent confined to soy and cotton and corn fields. They routinely
contaminate homes and classrooms and drinking water. A growing chorus of
doctors and scientists is warning that their uncontrolled use could be
responsible for the increasing number of health problems turning up in
hospitals across the South American nation. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this March 9, 2013, photo, residents gather to speak with Dr.
Damian Verzenassi on health concerns they have about agrochemicals in
the main square of Alvear, in Santa Fe province, Argentina. In the heart
of Argentinas soybean business, house-to-house surveys of 65,000
people in farming communities found cancer rates two to four times
higher than the national average, as well as higher rates of
hypothyroidism and chronic respiratory illnesses. (AP Photo/Natacha
Pisarenko)
In this Sept. 23, 2013, photo, empty pesticide containers ready for
recycling are collected inside an enclosure by the farming business
association in Gualeguaychu, in Entre Rios province, Argentina. Widely
ignored Argentine health minister guidelines recommend perforating empty
containers to prevent reuse by residents. The association says the
containers will be recycled into plastic tubing.