GMWatch is releasing a series of four interviews with Argentine people whose lives have been seriously affected by the spraying of glyphosate and other agrochemicals on GM soy.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12479:reports-reports
The fourth interview is with Ãngel Strapazzon, a community educator and member of Mocase-Via Campesina (Mocase-VC), the largest peasant organization in the country. Mocase-VC comprises 9,000 families.
Photograph of Ãngel Strapazzon:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12496:reports-images-for-download
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Ãngel Strapazzon
Interview by Dario Aranda
"With the current agribusiness model, [genetically modified Roundup Ready] RR soybeans and glyphosate fumigations, the losses have been substantial over the years. Community territories where ancestral peasants and indigenous families have lived for generations have been totally destroyed. Indiscriminate deforestation has caused the loss of flora and fauna, which represented sustenance for the population of indigenous peasants. It meant having medicinal herbs and wild fruits as food for the people and the animals. In addition, land has been taken away from the people and fenced by wire, damaging the economy because families have been forced to reduce their livestock. In some cases, families had to get rid of their goats, sheep and cows altogether because they have nowhere to take them.
"In other cases, families were forced to leave just because they were defending their right to the land. People were put in jail, even children and the elderly. They have violated the rights of those who worked on the land for generations and even treated them as criminals. The judges and the police are the right hand of the multinationals in the agribusiness. They don't respect schools. Children who attend school in rural areas are often sprayed on site, causing them dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea and headaches.
"The spraying of RR soybeans has caused irretrievable damage to native and traditional seeds and has increased the mortality of species that have specific functions in the cycle of nature. Spraying has caused and continues to cause damage to the health of entire families who live near the plantations. It pollutes the water, the soil and the atmosphere, and causes health problems such as miscarriages in pregnant women, birth defects and skin allergies. You can see malformations in animals as well, especially in lambs and chicks. Loss of forest fruits is terrible because some of the spraying coincides with the flowering of the little land that is still guarded by peasants. Glyphosate makes the fruit go bad.
"After many years of this agricultural model, we can say that there have been significant losses. We’ve lost land that contained good soil, good water and diversity, but we've also lost self-sufficient families who lived on what they cultivated and generated food for local markets. Small industries have also been affected with this model of death. The massive cultivation of soybeans means wealth for some, but growing poverty for others. It means less land for diversified crops. It means jeopardizing ancient cultures. It means the loss of native seeds. It means pollution of our natural resources.
"We have strengthened the resilience of communities, who are directly affected by this model and know that it is time to get together and prepare to respond to an alternative that would guarantee adequate, healthy and non-genetically modified food for the population.
"That alternative is food sovereignty. For this reason, we have been working alongside farmers associations and the city to form the Indian National Peasant Movement - Movimiento Nacional Campesino Indigena (MNCI). It is a national response to stop the soy monoculture and keep the other model alive.
"Agribusiness companies have a lot of power and most of the media at their service. Sometimes we hear their lies and we laugh. They say it is 'sustainable and responsible' but actually it is irresponsible spending and only sustainable for their pockets. The model they hold is a model of death, of exclusion, of denial of future generations, of hunger, of plundering of our natural resources. It is a model of wealth monopoly, manipulation of nature, and violation of Mother Earth's rights. This model is all about impositions, wires, dispossession, and subjugation. There is a diversity of cultures in this world. It is inconceivable to look at nature as a commodity. What we have today, we are just borrowing from future generations. Agro-ecological and diversified food production is possible. Mother Earth has rights and we have to respect them. It is possible to live a good, abundant life for everyone. The agribusinesses don’t understand that.
"They say that glyphosate is safe, but they should come to the fields and test the safety of it themselves. There is irrefutable proof. They will see that one cannot live with glyphosate. Families exposed to it die off slowly because it is an agrochemical that accumulates in the body. The cruelty of this project carried out by the multinationals is indescribable. We must organize, defend ourselves, and resist the agribusiness model. Using the agro-ecological model is the only way to gain sovereignty over food. It is a model of life going against one that is based purely on economic gain."