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Residents Say "Stop the Spraying!" |
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By Marcela Valente*
A
campaign is launched in Argentina against herbicides used on genetically
modified soybean crops, the country's main export.
BUENOS AIRES - Cultivation of genetically modified
soybeans is expanding in Argentina, and with it, the use of herbicides.
The "Paren de fumigar" (Stop the Fumigation) campaign warns against
agro-chemical spraying in urban areas, as activists collect information
about its impacts in order to denounce it.
Behind the initiative are the Rural Reflection Group (GRR), the
Nature Protection Center and neighborhood organizations.
Jorge Rulli, with GRR, told Tierramérica that so far this year the
campaign -- which began in January and covers all rural areas --
collected more than 60 complaints. He explained that "it is no accident"
that most of them come from the provinces of Córdoba (central Argentina)
and Santa Fe (central-east), which along with Buenos Aires province
make up the country's epicenter of soybean cultivation -- and the
associated use of the herbicide glyphosate.
"We want to put together a map showing that (the intensive use of
agro-toxins) is a systemic model of rural development that will
produce a health catastrophe," Rulli said.
In the last 15 years, genetically modified (GM) soybean farming
has extended its zone of influence, and today is Argentina's leading
crop, as well as the country's principal export.
The latest harvest of 15.5 million hectares consumed 160 million
liters of glyphosate -- six times more than a decade ago. The serious
problem, according to the groups' complaint, is that this chemical,
which kills all plants except for the transgenic crop itself, is
sprayed within meters of people's homes.
Historically, forests, dairy farms and pastures surrounded the towns,
and mitigated the impact of chemical spraying of fields. But now
those protective barriers have disappeared.
"We have soybeans to the north, south and east," said Sofia Gatica,
who lives in the Ituzaingó Anexo neighborhood on the outskirts of
Córdoba, capital of the province of the same name.
Home to 5,000 people, Ituzaingó Anexo is the limit between city
and countryside. "I cross the street and that's where the soybeans
begin. And of course if they plant it, they also spray it," Gatica
said in a conversation with Tierramérica.
According to Argentina's 2005 Law on Agro-Toxins, the limit for
spraying pesticides and herbicides is 1,500 meters from populated
areas.
In 2002, the neighborhood was declared a health emergency area after
a study by the provincial ministry of health found higher incidences
of leukemia, lupus, skin hemorrhages and genetic malformations.
Another report, presented in March, studied 30 children between
the ages of seven and 14 in the neighborhood. It found the presence
of five agro-toxins in their blood, 25 with higher levels than considered
safe by the health authorities.
Following this investigation, conducted by epidemiologist Edgardo
Schneider at the request of the Mothers of Ituzaingó group, the
city government "concluded that the neighborhood had to be evacuated,"
said Gatica. But the residents remain there, alongside the soybeans,
as the crop dusters continue to fly overhead, spraying the fields.
The law also created a registry of those who apply the chemicals,
and requires they receive training in chemical management. But the
residents say there are excesses and dishonesty in the handling
and application of herbicides.
Also in circulation are trucks and tractors that empty and clean
their tanks at sites in towns, and they drip the chemicals along
the way. Furthermore, some municipalities use glyphosate to combat
weeds growing between the cracks in the pavement.
Some local governments have passed regulations to stop crop spraying
near town limits, but residents complain that there aren't enough
controls to ensure that farmers obey the rules and that the authorities
regularly give in to pressure from the farmers.
The GRR has received complaints from other urbanized areas of Córdoba,
including Montecristo, Mendiolaza, Río Cuarto and San Francisco,
and from towns in Santa Fe province, such as San Lorenzo, San Justo,
Las Petacas, Piamonte, Alcorta and Máximo Paz. And, most recently,
from Buenos Aires province.
A study financed by the Ministry of Health, conducted in five towns
in southern Santa Fe province, produced some alarming data.
According to the Center for Biodiversity Research, the National
University of Rosario, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology
and the Italian Hospital of Rosario, there is a "very significant
incidence" of cancer and malformation in the area studied.
The research, presented in January, showed that in the Santa Fe
towns of Alcorta, Bigand, Carreras, Máximo Paz and Santa Teresa
there are 10 times more cases of liver cancer than the national
average, double the number of pancreatic and lung cancer, and three
times more gastric and testicular cancer.
Also recorded were numerous cases of hypospadia (the urethra exits
the penis at a point before the tip) and cryptorchism (undescended
testicles) -- both are birth defects associated with the use of
agrochemicals.
Ninety percent of the pathologies are linked to fixed sources of
contamination or environmental risk factors, says the report, which
confirms that some of those sources, in the rural areas studied,
surpass the averages.
Today there are 200 people in the neighborhood who have cancer,
according to Mothers of Ituzaingó, who conducted a door-to-door
survey, and brought the issue before the Supreme Court of Justice.
They are awaiting a decision.
* Marcela Valente is an IPS correspondent. |
