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This is an issue that is not discussed in Argentina.
Why? Because it questions what Argentina today sees as a gold mine.
This gold mine in Argentina today is soya.
To produce soya the large rural producers and the state
work together, even though they disagree on certain issues.
In the long run today's method of producing soya will lead to,
and remember this, a catastrophe. For people and for the environment.
Because soya is produced using poison.
This poison is devastating Argentina's Pampa. It is the poison of the Pampas.
At first glance Argentina's Pampa seems synonymous with nature.
There are no buildings, no asphalt and no chimneys producing black smoke.
But behind all of this green there is a secret:
a poisonous secret.
The green that covers 80% of Argentina's most fertile soils
and is the main income source for landowners and the state
is the green of genetically modified soya.
A genetically modified plant from the laboratory
able to withstand a poison which kills everything else:
Glyphosate.
Although soya is made resistant to Glyphosate, the chemical is still a poison.
An extremely potent poison suspected of causing cancer and birth deformities.
Its commercial name is "Roundup", and it is produced by Monsanto.
Monsanto has produced some of the most dangerous substances in history.
Substances with side effects, which Monsanto always denied.
It is now clear that these substances have led to the death of many people.
The same could happen here in the Pampa, but nobody wants to listen.
Lots of people will become sick.
We all get sprayed here. They had to stop giving children soya
because they began growing ***.
This is not a food fit for human beings.
Dario Sanfelice has been a doctor for 23 years.
He works in a small town located in
the heart of the GM empire. He views the spread of soya plantations
as a nightmare for public health.
Sometimes if problems are ignored, people from outside must break the silence.
In under ten years transgenic seeds have colonized the most fertile provinces.
Several times a year Roundup is
sprayed on these vast populated areas, normally by plane.
This documentary is called "La soja del hambre".
It is not an underground film. It was financed
by "Arte", a renowned German-French state TV station.
The film clearly shows the dangers of GM Soya and the pesticide Glyphosate.
These fields are less than 50 metres away from the soya fields
but of course the fields full of soya are sprayed with pesticide.
The people who live here must then also be affected.
Over there on the other side of the road, children go to school.
After they had sprayed the whole area it began to rain.
Then the sun came out and the rain evaporated.
Many people here were affected. There were about 53 cases
They said it was a virus.
The author of this documentary is called Marie Monique Robin.
For years she has been studying the global impact
of GM crops and Monsanto on agriculture.
If you look at what is happening now with GM crops and pesticides,
where do you think Argentina will be 10 years from now?
What will be happening in 10 to 15 years?
A lot of people will be sick. Lots of children will be affected by cancer.
Fertility will be a big problem.
Last year Robin presented her book "El mundo según Monsanto" in Argentina.
The big newspapers - all full of adverts for pesticides - ignored it.
Are similar things with transgenic soya happening in other parts of the world?
Paraguay and Brazil are similar cases, but Argentina is a lot worse.
The way Roundup or Glyphosate is sprayed is a catastrophe.
Its not biodegradable and harmless as the company has always claimed.
Here comes Roundup, the first biodegradable herbicide.
It destroys weeds from the root to the leaves
without contaminating the soil.
Roundup, the herbicide that makes killing weeds fun.
In France and the United States, the company was found guilty
of lying in its adverts.
Imagine a world that preserves nature,
the air and the rivers.
Where people can produce more using less agrochemicals
and without deforestation. That's a world with transgenic plants.
An initiative by Monsanto and the Brazilian Nutritional Association Asbran.
They lie? - Yes, they lie.
When they say its harmless they are lying. - It's neither harmless nor biodegradable.
Studies in France show the main herbicide now found in rivers is Roundup.
In France? A country where there is far less GM soya than in Argentina?
Exactly, and cultivating GM crops is forbidden in France.
Here Roundup is sprayed from planes. What are the dangers for the future?
Roundup causes cancer.
It affects the endocrine system which mean it affects reproduction.
Deformities caused by pesticides.
Problems of sterility and miscarriages are rising in the whole country.
Its effect on fertility and pregnancy is particularly shocking.
You can not find Robin's investigation into Monsanto in Argentinian book shops.
Her documentaries about the dangers of Glyphosate have never been translated
nor shown on television or in cinema.
They are passed around between doctors and environmental activists.
Why? Because to criticise today's mode of soya production in Argentina
is nearly considered a sacrilege.
Nobody wants to know about health problems or the soil, after years of using
GM crops or Glyphosate, a herbicide which kills everything around it.
Criticising this today is like killing the goose which laid the golden egg.
I am now an expert on Argentina. I could teach you about cows, wheat and soya.
When we talk about this issue people think we are crazy.
They think we are attacking the country's future and prosperity.
In spite of Argentina's economic crisis a new record soya harvest was achieved
making it the new "green gold" of Argentina's producers.
How does soya production impact on farmers? - Very strongly.
This whole area used to produce milk
and vegetables were grown here. But none of that is left.
Soya production is not farming. - Why?
It's not agriculture, it's not for food, it's for export. It causes disease.
Many of these products impact on human health.
What happens to people living near fields? - Their health suffers a lot.
People are not as healthy as they used to be. We all get sprayed here.
This is La Criolla, a small town in the province of Santa Fe.
The Franco family lives in this typical small town house.
Chemicals and toxins are stored here, right next to the family.
What's your name? - Colito.
Colito is a three year old street child who often visits the Franco's home.
Colito, what's this? - Poison.
Colito already knows that there is poison in his town.
Poison in the air and poison in the bottles thrown onto the streets.
Poison that kills the grass.
This is the patio of a typical house, but we are surrounded by pesticides.
We can always smell the insecticides. Especially during harvest time.
How do the farmers react? - They get angry.
They don't care at all about people's health.
They are only interested in making money.
We are going to have a record harvest of 22 to 23 million tons of soya.
In La Criolla just like in any other town in the Pampa where soya is produced,
the vehicles used for spraying called "Mosquitos" can be seen on the streets.
They are often parked next to houses without any special care.
But you can't drive around in one, they should stay 500m outside of town. .
These fields bordering La Criolla belong to the Sociedad Rural.
For many years soya was planted here. The pesticides used here
ended up making the owner of this bar sick.
Due to Sunilda Generos' complaints, they no longer plant soya near to her.
What used to happen when they sprayed? - I used to get sick.
The plane would fly over my house. The town council used to call and warn me
that a plane was about to pass and that I should stay inside.
But even if I did stay inside, even until the next day, it still made me sick.
60% of the plane's spray is wasted but it stays in the air for 24 hours.
My mouth would swell and I would get dizzy.
It was like I was getting a cold. I felt really bad.
Did you go and see a doctor? - Yes, and I went to the police too.
We went to neighbouring towns and spoke with engineers.
What did they say? - That it was harmless.
Harmless. - That you make it all up? - Yes, they say it's all in my head.
The people suffering from this, are they being silenced?
I think so. Petitions to communal authorities end up filed away or lost.
I couldn't bear the sound of people speaking, nor have the light on.
I felt bad. When I stood up I felt dizzy.
If you and your neighbours are like this, why doesn't anybody do something?
Nobody wants to help me. The only one who did, died.
Sara and Daniela live next to Sunilda's bar.
When they started spraying, it used to come over here.
My mouth and throat went dry and my whole body started to itch.
Daniela, come here! He wants to see you.
He wants you to show him. Show him where it itches.
Come on, show him where it itches.
She gets these blisters.
Yours look the same? - Yes, they do. - They always look the same?
Yes, they are always the same. I have them here on my body.
The experiences of people living near soya fields are always the same.
After spraying they feel dizzy, sick and get allergic reactions.
But the long term damage caused by Glyphosate will be even worse.
But nobody wants to talk about it.
Don't these countries' governments know or want to know what is going on?
Monsanto knows what it is doing and why it is hiding data.
The dangers of PCBs in transformers are widely known. PCB causes cancer.
Monsanto has lied about other products: Agent Orange, PCB and Dioxin.
These products have contaminated the world for decades.
Monsanto knew they were poisonous and eventually they were forbidden.
2K5T was the principal ingredient of
Agent Orange, the defoliant used by the US Army in the war in Vietnam.
During the 1960s 40 million litres of Agent Orange
was sprayed over south Vietnam, that's equal to 400 kilograms of pure dioxin.
Three million people and thousands of American soldiers were contaminated.
40 years after the war, dioxin continues to make people ill.
Today it is known that this poison causes cancer and genetic disorders.