In “The Many Shades of Green. Soy’s Sad Legacy in the Amazon ”  (1) , I  focused on deforestation, the Brazilian soy highway and global warming. This article will cover the social aspects of the soy industry– human rights issues, land grabbing leading to murders and health issues surrounding use of herbicides and pesticides.   

Over the past decade international agri-businesses such as ADM, Cargill, Bunge and Dreyfus have been making deals with South American governments, large scale farmers, banks and chemical companies to cover the Americas with genetically-modified (GM) soybeans. Monsanto has developed new soybeans specifically to resist their herbicide, Roundup, and kill weeds -- not to make it tastier or better for your health. In fact, the altered soy has fewer nutrients than before. Since 1997 farmers from Boise to Birmingham have been planting GM soy and dousing their fields with over 10 million gallons of pesticides and herbicides a year.  Despite protests from Europeans and local farmers, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay have begun to introduce genetically modified soy. This proliferation of modified seed comes at a cost. While the soy plants flourish, everything else sprayed by Roundup and other herbicides is killed – including fruit trees, vegetables, worms, beneficial insects, birds, frogs and even children who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A soy monoculture, single crop agriculture, will make our food chain more vulnerable to disease. An invasion of soy rust, a fungus of the species Phakopsora pachyrhizi, in 2004 threatened to wipe out as much as 80 percent of South American and U.S. crops. To eradicate the rust fungus, even more pesticides needed to be sprayed.

Currently the United States is the leading world supplier of soy, almost all of it genetically modified. However, the U.S. has maximized its farm land and has little room to expand.  South America, on the other hand, has thousands of acres of inexpensive cerrado (grassland) and rain forest, cheap labor, and willing governments. The continent of South America produces more soy than the U.S., and soon Brazil will be the major producer of soy, especially with the new interest in soy biofuels. Its growth has been phenomenal – over the past 20 years world soy production has doubled, now at 210 million tons/year, with estimates of 300 million/year by 2020.

In South America, mainly Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the soy ‘gold rush’ has attracted fierce competition for land, leading to violence and murder. Hundreds of acres of rainforest are being cleared everyday, often by slave “debt” laborers, to make room for more soy plantations. 

Why soybeans? The major consumers of soybeans aren’t vegetarians who prefer soy milk, edamame and tofu burgers. Over the past few decades soy products like soy oil, soy meal and lectithin have slowly been introduced into our diet in processed foods.  Soy can be found in 40% of the food we eat today. Skippy Peanut Butter, Lays Potato Chips, Thomas’ English Muffins, even Campbell’s Chicken soup all contain some form of soy. However, the majority of soy is used for animal feed, due to demand for soy-fed chickens, pigs and cattle following the mad Cow debacle in Europe. Coupled with the burgeoning biofuel industry, many South American countries see soy as a cash crop that will increase tax revenue, bolster their GNP and reduce unemployment. Not surprisingly, international agibusinesses net the greatest profit – Monsanto’s 2006 annual report listed a $3.8 billion dollar profit with 17 percent increase from last year, while Cargill raked in $88.2 billion sales in 2006/07. 

 Sadly, while some countries see some additional monies from commerce, it is at a cost to the environment through deforestation, soil erosion and pollution, threatens public health, reduces local food supply, and has been the impetus for land grabbing, human bondage and even murder, all for a slice of the green pie.

Roundup Ready Genetically Modified (GM) Soy 

The company that brought us Agent Orange, Monsanto, has been successfully promoting, selling and distributing the herbicide Roundup in tandem with producing genetically modified (GM) ‘Roundup Ready’ soybeans, created to resist the toxic chemical making up Roundup, glyphosate. The new bean combines the 3,000 year old genetic makeup of the soybean with genes of the cauliflower mosaic virus, agrobacteria, and petunia.

Genetically altered soybeans are less nutritious. Studies have shown significant reduction in choline, fat, carbohydrates, ash and some fatty acids.  According to Monsanto's own tests, Roundup Ready soybeans contain 29 percent less of the brain nutrient choline, and 27 percent more trypsin inhibitor, the potential allergen that interferes with protein digestion, known to cause allergic reactions.(4)

Roundup is typically sprayed several times during the growing season, with one large dose prior to harvest. Once a field is sprayed with this herbicide, all weeds die, leaving the super-soy to grow and thrive, unscathed, in the tropical sun. The herbicides seep into the water systems and blow onto other nearby fields and residences killing fruit trees, plants, birds, frogs and fish. While many have questioned the possible human and environmental damage of massive spraying, Monsanto has assured that Roundup is ‘environmentally benign,’ despite growing evidence to the contrary. Common sense tells you that eating food covered in toxic herbicides is not good for your health. 

Numerous studies have uncovered health issues caused by glyphosate exposure – from skin irritations to miscarriages, premature birth, thyroid issues, the cancer non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and death.(2) The US Environmental Protection Agency warns that continued exposure to glyphosate may lead to “kidney damage and reproductive effects.” (9)

Four years ago in Paraguay, eleven year old Silvino Talavera was walking home from school on a path near a soyfield when a cropduster sprayed the area with Roundup Ready. Silvino died 5 days later.  Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.

The small town of Ituizaingó , Argentina is bordered by Roundup Ready sprayed soy fields. According to Sofia Gatica, a founder of the group Mothers of Cordoba, there has been a upsurge in cancer cases in her community of five thousand people. Today in the Ituizaingó neighborhood, there have been more than 300 cases of cancer in addition to other skin, respiratory, and blood illnesses such as hemolytic anemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and tumors. Leukemia has affected 13 individuals, eight of which are still fighting the disease. Children and teens in the region are the main victims of the agro-toxin poisoning.(3)

Brazil, Argentina, the U.S. and Paraguay use hundreds of millions of pounds of herbicides a year with estimates of exponential growth according to Monsanto and the US EPA.

April Howard in “Upside Down World” interviewed a female Paraguan farmer about the impact of living next to soy farms that regularly spray herbicides and pesticides.

"The day after the last fumigation my cow aborted, the second time this year, then she swelled up and died. Some of chickens died, and pigs too…The day of a fumigation, we get sick, we have terrible headaches, nausea and stomach cramps. We are also all having vision problems, even my children who have now moved away…  There are no fish left in our river. The water is completely contaminated." (5)

Companies other than Monsanto are developing GM products, including Syngenta, DuPont, Dow. Currently Brazil is working with BASF, a German company, to develop a new GM soybean that is resistant to a different herbicide, OnDuty. We can expect to see an even greater increase in pesticides, herbicides and GM soybeans and other GM products (corn, sorgum, alfalfa) in the next few years.

Land Grabbing

“The reality of our country is that a small group owns all the land, has health, education and employment, while the majority lacks everything.” Odilón Espínola, of Paraguay  (5)

In Paraguay more than 74 percent of the land is owned by two percent of the population.  In Brazil over half the rural land is owned by a handful of latifundistas, large landowners. Land conflicts in Brazil are common because of several land laws that encouraged development of the Amazon region - the land law of 1965 granting land to those who could demonstrate ‘effective use’ for one year and a day and a second law in 1980 granting land to squatters who lived on land and kept it in production for five years.  Fierce land grabbing ensued and many small landowners have been threatened to give up their land. In some cases government buildings holding land titles were burned to the ground.

Land title falsification is so common that Brazilians have a name for it -- grilagem. Soy farmers, cattlemen and loggers illegally assume titles to land rightfully owned by indigenous peoples and local farmers, often with the help of government officials. The poor people are then expelled forcefully from their land. Often violence erupts as the original owners attempt to regain his/her land.

Para has the highest rate of assassinations due to land issues in any state in Brazil – with almost 500 killed over a period of a few years. One of the most publicized murders was that of Dorothy Stang, a 73 year old American nun, murdered because she opposed the land grabbing near her adopted village of Anapu, in Para.  Dorothy was part of a group that stood up to the grilagems – and later paid for it with her life.

The following quote from Dorothy sums up the major issues behind land grabbing.

”Already in the last 30 years, 25 percent of the virgin forest has been destroyed. Our project seeks to preserve the forest and promote sustainable development through use of the natural resources such as cacao, pepper, coffee, fruits and dyewoods. We have government titles for some of the land."

"The greed of the invaders, loggers who take out the hardwoods and cattlemen who burn the forest, depletes the already low fertility of the land, causes erosion and temperature rise and lessens the rainfall. When the settlers attempt to defend their land, they are accused of violence. Their homes have been burned, and in the recent trouble, a group of hooded gunmen paid by the cattlemen was repelled by the homesteaders, and one was killed.” (6)

Dorothy was shot and killed by one of the men she denounced. While her killer, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, was sentenced to thirty years due to the publicity of the case, most crimes like this have gone unsolved. Over the past ten years there have been nearly 1,500 land-related assassinations throughout Brazil, but only a handful of convictions.

Slave Labor in Brazil

As many as 40,000 workers are forced into a form of slave labor today in Brazil’s rural areas according to the Internation Labor Organization and the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission. Brazil’s antislavery Mobile Enforcement Team has freed thousands of indentured servants, many suffering from disease and malnutrition. While half of these debt slaves work on cattle ranches, a large number work on soy plantations or in deforestation for future soy fields. Workers are promised a job with decent wages and later find themselves in a form of debt bondage. After being transported hundreds of miles from home, they discover that the “high-paying” job was egregiously misrepresented. With no money or way to return home, the workers are stuck.

The wages given for back-breaking work can barely cover the high prices they are charged for food, clothing, water, tools and lodging, while being cooerced to work by gun-toting field bosses known as gatos (gang masters).  (7)

According to a BBC interview with Regivaldo Pereira dos Santos, a 22-year-old from Redençao,  Pará :

"The gato took us upriver for several days in a boat. Then we were dropped off, and told to clear the forest. We only had a rough shack to live in and just the food we'd brought. The gato said he'd be back in a couple of weeks but he never appeared. There was no way we could get out of there because it was so isolated. After six months, the rains came and our shack was flooded. Eventually, we managed to get help and escaped. But we haven't yet got compensation, because it turns out that the fazendeiro didn't have rights to the land." (10)

At least Regivaldo returned home alive.

The landowners, fazendeiros, are not prosecuted, since they are not directly involved.  If caught enslaving workers, they could be sent to prison for two to eight years and fined. However, the fines are low and only a few have ever been imprisoned. They use gatos to run the day-to-day business, avoiding responsibility for their workers. The slaves work a seven day week, 12 hour days without breaks and only one meal a day. They sleep in shacks or hammocks, often without nearby toilets. The workers are trapped without a way home. If they decide to leave, they are threatened, beaten and some are killed.

Almost 20,000 workers have been freed from slavery over the past decade. But with high unemployment, 50 million people living in poverty and the ever increasing demand for soy, slavery will continue. Many feel it is time for the Brazilian government to find a better way of patroling remote areas and enforcing its anti-slavery laws. (8)

Is Soy worth it?

Do we really want to convert our farmland, pastures and rainforests to GM soy fields?
Who is profiting? We, the consumer, definitely are not. It has been proven that GM soy is less nutritional. Unless the label says ‘organic’ soy, soy products such as lecithin, soy oil, soy meal, tofu, soy sauce, miso, and tempeh are made from genetically modified (GM) soybeans that are sprayed with glyphosate.  It is ingested when you eat processed food. Let’s face it - we are all slowly being poisoned.

So who benefits from the multi-billion dollar agribusiness? Not Gustavo in Argentina. Not Maria in Brazil.  85% of soy produced in South America is shipped to Europe for animal feed.  South American food supply will continue to shrink since many farmers are converting their crops to soy, often by force. Rainforests are being burned, the air and water polluted, land wars erupt into violence and murder and the extremely poor are forced to work like the slaves from the nineteenth century– all for a sea of toxic green plants.

If the rapid expansion of genetically modified soy continues unchecked, the chilling prophesy of Soylent Green could take place this century.  Like Charlton Heston who blindly worked for the ‘system’ and later awakens to the truth, it is time to open our eyes and read the food labels, to learn what is in our food and its cost to human rights and the environment. If we don’t stop the Monsantos and Cargills from sprinkling GM soy around the world, Charlton Heston’s final words, “Soylent green is people,” may actually have a sad ring of truth.
 

What can you do?

1. Read the labels of your food.
2. Reduce or eliminate soy products, especially if not organic.   All non-organic soy is from genetically modified soybeans, sprayed with Roundup. This includes soy milk, soy burgers, tofu, tempeh, soy sauce, miso (refer to “Edible Soy Products List” below).
3. Reduce or eliminate processed foods that contain soy – listed as soya flour, lecithin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, vegetable oil (simple, fully, or partially hydrogenated), or plant sterols.
4. Eat local organic foods.
5.  Avoid meat or chicken which are fed soy products from the Amazon. This pertains to European meat and chicken.

Edible Soy Products List

 References
1. “The many shades of green. Soy’s sad Legacy in the Amazon ”  (1) http://www.mariri.net/content/view/28/1/
2. “Glyphosate Factsheet”, Caroline Cox / Journal of Pesticide Reform v.108, n.3Fall98 rev.Oct00 http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Roundup-Glyphosate-Factsheet-Cox.htm “Glyphosate-containing products are acutely toxic to animals, including humans. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, headache, nausea, numbness, elevated blood pressure, and heart palpitations. Given the marketing of glyphosate herbicides as benign, it is striking that laboratory studies have found adverse effects in all standard categories of laboratory toxicology testing. These include medium-term toxicity (salivary gland lesions), long-term toxicity (inflamed stomach linings), genetic damage (in human blood cells), effects on reproduction (reduced sperm counts in rats; increased frequency of abnormal sperm in rabbits), and carcinogenicity (increased frequency of liver tumors in male rats and thyroid cancer in female rats).”
3. “Agro-toxins used in transgenic crops cause deaths”, http://www.cartamaior.com.br/templates/materiaMostrar.cfm?materia_id=10358&alterarHomeAtual=1
4. “What about soy?” Robbins, http://www.foodrevolution.org/what_about_soy.htm
5. “Paraguay: Women from Farming Communities Fight to Change Agriculture and Patriarchy”, http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/659/44/
6. www.holycrossjustice.org
7. “Slavery in Brazil”, http://www.mongabay.com/external/slavery_in_brazil.htm
8. “The Scourge of Brazilian Slavery”, http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/the_scourge_of_brazilian_slavery/
9. “Consumer Factsheet on Glyphosate”, http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/dwh/c-soc/glyphosa.html
10. “Brazil’s ‘slave’ ranch workers”, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4536085.stm
11. Monsanto corporate site, www.monsanto.com
12. US Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/index.htm