A Seed Europe - Campesino Families Block Fumigation of Soy Fields in Paraguay

A SEED's soy campaign questions large scale soy production in South America and supports sustainable and local food production in Europe. The campaign has the following goals:

To inform the general public about the social and ecological effects of the massive soy production in Latin America; land conflicts, violence, rising pesticide use, GMOs, deforestation, erosion and loss of food sovereignty.

To link the issue with meat production and consumption in Europe; Most of the soy is used as animal feed in Europe (and China). This meat industry creates animal cruelty and pollution by over-fertilisation.

To stop the current certification processes; nature conservation organisations and some NGOs, together with companies, are creating criteria for so called 'responsible soy' that are unacceptable for local peasants and don't question the current export-volume neither the use of genetically manipulated seeds.

To give direct support to local initiatives that fight the soy expansion by giving international attention to their struggle, doing solidarity actions in Europe and raising money.

While the problems related to soy production are continuously increasing, a new campaign focus is taking shape: fuel and electricity produced from agriculture products. Recently the threat of climate change and the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels has sped up this alarming development.

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Campesino Families Block Fumigation of Soy Fields in Paraguay

Friday, 11 January 2008
Thursday, 10 January 2008 - One hundred campesino residents were able to block the agrotoxic fumigation of a new soy field in the 4th line of the Ybypé community in the Lima district of the department of San Pedro. In this “line” [section] of the town, parcels of campesino land were sold to Brazilian soy growers, who dismantled the parcels entirely with tractors and planted soy. The residents, aware of the dangers represented by the pesticides used to fumigate the soy fields, have successfully resisted every intent to fumigate these parcels. During this small but important victory on January 7, 2007, local leaders were able to convince the police, who were protectingthe fumigation tractors, of their arguments. There were no confrontations between the “blue helmets” [police] and the residents. In the department of San Pedro above all, a popular movement is asserting itself more and more forcefully against the application of pesticides to genetically modified soy monoculture crops. With appeals for legal protection backed by the Paraguayan Huuman Rights Committee [Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay (CODEHUPY)], movements are public attention to the soy growers’ lack of observance of means of protection, such as the installation of live barriers like tall bushes or other plants to block the drift of soy field pesticides the into community lands. On the other hand, the soy growers need to apply their chemical products now in order not to loose a large amount of money in the harm that pests provoke in their crops. Their economic interests and the resident families' actions of self-defense are creating intense clashes in all areas where monoculture crops border campesino settlements. Written by Reto Sonderegge, photographs from the San Pedro Departmental Committee of in Defense of Sovereignty and Life.
Last Updated ( Friday, 11 January 2008 )