Gran Chaco. Burning forests, pesticide-flooded monocultures, desertification. Greenpeace Argentina’s report, Slaughtering the Forest. #Buycott GMO soy, palm oil and even meats from the Americas.
Gran Chaco, burning forests and flooding disasters
The Gran Chaco-in Argentina and Paraguay, Bolivia and a short stretch of Brazil-is home to the second largest forest in South America after the Amazon. And the most extensive dry forest, a ‘green desert’ of millennial origin. Rainforests but also savannas, swamps and saltmarsh fields, rivers and dry courses. 3,400 species of plants, 500 species of birds, 220 reptiles and amphibians, 150 mammals including the jaguar, the symbolic feline of which some 20 specimens remain today. Here and in three other areas (Santiago del Estero, Salta, Formosa) 80% of deforestation in Argentina is concentrated, which in 2015 ranked 9th in the top ten compiled by the FAO. (2)
Transgenic soybeans and slaughter cattle are the drivers of wild deforestation, according to the ‘Slaughtering the Forest‘ report. Published by Greenpeace Argentina, in July 2019, after a year of investigation. The devastation of native habitats and vegetation, among other things, has impaired the ability of soils to absorb violent river and stream floods. (3)
Tons of agrotoxics are thus dragged into river waters to the reservoirs supplying public pipelines, thus poisoned. Some mayors, such as that of Gancedo, try to buy back the already privatized resources to mitigate the effects of pollution and prevent spraying in contiguous areas, but it is already too late.
‘The grounds with native forests absorb much more water than soybean seed soils because they have almost no roots. This is why we talk about desertification, because soybeans transform the soil into something that is not permeable‘ (4)
Wind erosion is another consequence of ongoing deforestation. The absence of natural barriers pushes sand everywhere, also seriously affecting the subsistence agriculture of local communities. Therefore, too, traditional crops must give way to monocultures subjected to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. (5)
Geopolitics and ecological crisis
The tariff battle reignited in recent weeks by Donald Trump against China is spurring Argentine landowners to accelerate ecocide in the Gran Chaco. The leading pork producer is forced to seek new soybean suppliers, and Brazil’s fazendeiros-which even as they rush to deforest the Amazon to grow more GMO soybeans-are not enough to make up for the loss of the immense star-studded supplies.
Unexpectedly low yields of Brazilian GMO soybeans further exacerbate the voracity of the Argentine behemoths, which right now-as the general elections approach on 10/27/19-may negotiate with political candidates to exterminate the Chaco in the name of economic revitalization. (6) Brazil’s soybean stocks have in fact decreased by about 80 percent, compared to the same period in the previous year. With a fair decline in exports (-8% overall, -11% in China) and an increasing increase in prices.
#Buycott! GMO soybeans, palm oil and overseas beef
The export of beef to Europe and Israel is another primary cause of the ongoing ecological disaster. According to data collected by Greenpeace, Argentine meat is sold at high prices, motivated by its apparently high quality. Subject to its ‘side effects’ as described above. The market, as in Brazil, is concentrated in the hands of a few, who dominate it through controlled enterprises and business arrangements.
Cresud for example, in Salta province, has an extensive network of slaughterhouses, exports beef and supplies it to other export companies. As well as managing plantations and cattle farms. (7) Frigorífico Bermejo SA, in the Chaco, in turn obtains cattle from both the large producers in Salta (Cresur and Desdelsur) and Inversora Juramento.
Lidl and Metro, in turn, sell the very meat of Exportaciones Agroindustriales Argentinas-Carnes Pampeanas, a subsidiary of Cresud. They will have their convenience, no doubt. But there is reason to suspect the soundness of their professions of faith about the socio-environmental sustainability of their supplies. (8) Which would hardly withstand the scrutiny of ISO 20400 Guidelines.
‘Sustainable sourcing [is that which] has the most positive environmental, social and economic impacts possible, throughout the entire life cycle‘ (ISO 20400:2017).
What sustainability in the meat of cattle grazing on purposefully deforested land, fed GMO soybeans from the Amazon, Cerrado and Gran Chaco flooded with pesticides? And what sustainability in meat from livestock derived from untraced cloning, treated with antibiotics and anabolic agents, fed animal meal?
To Europe’s complicity with the protagonists of unparalleled social and ecological crises-tolerated unreservedly in the toxic treaties signed by Jean Claude Juncker (9)-we respond with a demand for certain news about theorigin of all meat served by communities (restaurants, school and hospital canteens, catering). And with the boycott of purchases.
#Buycott! #Enough #soyOGM, #palm oil, #carnibovine from the American continent. #NotInOurName, #NotInOurName! Associations that proclaim to represent #civil society join us, for a battle of civilization that does not give up #Respect for basic human rights, animal welfare and ecosystems.
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) COMEX, 8.8.2019, iProfessional, Argentina, en la mira de China para importaciones de soja
https://www.iprofesional.com/index.php/comex/297480-estados-unidos-exportacion-Argentina-en-la-mira-de-China-para-importaciones-de-soja
(2) Where Brazil, already under the presidency of Michel Temer, has reached the first place in the planetary deforestation ranking (984 thousand ha/year, in the five-year period 2010-2015). Followed closely by the global palm oil leader, Indonesia (684 thousand ha, over the same period. On the opposite side stands China, however, with 1.542 million hectares of new forests each year.
Cf. FAO, Global Forest Assessment 2015, http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4793e.pdf
(3) José Valentin Derewicki, Cambio climático, deforestación e inercia: cóctel explosivo para el futuro del Chaco, 9.8.19, http://www.diarionorte.com/suple/178109/se-acorta-el-tiempo-para-un-gran-chaco-americano-sustentable
(4) Prensa Fol, La deforestación es una de las principales causas de las inundaciones que afectan a Chaco, 24.4 .19 , https://argentina.indymedia.org/2019/04/24/la-deforestacion-es-una-de-las-principales-causas-de-las-inundaciones-que-afectan-a-chaco/
(5) See footnote 2
(6) Proving the falsity of promises about hypothetical yield increases of GMO crops. For further study, reference is made to our free ebook ‘GMOs, the Big Scam,’ at https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/libri/ogm-la-grande-truffa
(7) In addition to Argentina, also in Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay.
(8) Lidl says it has recently initiated a change in its procurement policies, at https://www.lidl.it/it/csr-commercio-responsabile.htm.
Even Metro, on its website, tries to reassure customers with narratives of traceable and ‘fair’ supply chains for animals and workers, https://www.metro.it/metro-piu/piu-servizio/materie-prime/carne
(9) On the toxic treaties concluded and carried out by the Juncker Commission see previous articles, and others to be searched through keywords on our website:
– Canada, CETA https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/ceta-l-autunno-della-democrazia,
– Japan, JEFTA https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/accordo-ue-giappone-il-cambiamento-s-è-perso,
– USA, TTIP https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/ttip-via-libera-dell-europa-ai-nuovi-negoziati,
– Indonesia, CEPA https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/olio-di-palma-fuori-dall-accordo-ue-indonesia-petizione.
More reflections at https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/ttip-e-altri-accordi-di-partenariato-riflessioni
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.