Let Them Eat Soybeans

America were melting. By 2006, together with the United States, where GMO Monsanto soybeans dominated, Argentina and Brazil accounted for more than 81 % of world soybean production, thereby ensuring that practically every animal in the world fed soymeal was eating genetically engineered soybeans. Similarly, this would imply that every McDonald's hamburger mixed with soymeal would be genetically engineered, and most processed foods, whether they realized or not.20

Let Them Eat Soybeans! As the GMO soybean revolution destroyed traditional agricultural production, Argentines faced a dramatic change in their available diet. Furthermore, widespread soybean-based monoculture left the population desperately vulnerable to the national economic depression which hit Argentina in 2002. Previously in tough times, farmers and even ordinary city dwellers could grow their own crops to survive. But that was no longer possible under the transformation of Argentina's agriculture into industrial agribusiness.

As a result, hunger spread across the land, just as the economic crisis worsened. Fearing food riots, the national government, aided by Monsanto and the giant international soybean users such as Cargill, Nestle, and Kraft Foods, responded by giving out free food to the hungry. Meals made from soybeans were thus distributed with the secondary motive of fostering wider domestic consumption of the crop.

A national campaign was put in motion urging Argentines to replace a healthy diet of fresh vegetables, meat, milk, eggs and other products with ... soybeans. DuPont AgriSciences created a new organization with the healthy-sounding name, "Protein for Life:' in order to propagate soybean consumption by humans, even though the soybeans were meant to be grown as animal feed. As part of the campaign, DuPont gave out food fortified with soybeans to thousands of Buenos Aires poor. It was the first time ever in any country that a population had directly consumed soybeans in such large quantities. The Argentines had now become guinea pigs in more ways than one.21

Government and private propaganda touted the great health benefits of a soybean diet, as a replacement for dairy or meat protein. But the campaign was based on lies. It conveniently omitted the fact that a diet based on soybean is unfit for long-term human consumption, and that studies have established that babies fed soymilk have dramatically higher levels of allergies than those fed breast milk or cow milk. They did not tell Argentines that raw and processed soybeans contain a series of toxic substances which, when soy is consumed as a staple element of one's diet, damage health and have been related to cancer. They refused to say that soybeans contain an inhibitor, Trypsin, which Swedish studies have linked to stomach cancer. 22

In the countryside, the impact of mass soybean mono culture was horrendous. Traditional farming communities close to the huge soybean plantations were seriously affected by the aerial spraying of Monsanto Roundup herbicides. In Lorna Senes, peasants growing mixed vegetables for their own consumption found all their crops destroyed by spraying, as Roundup kills all plants other than specially gene-modified "herbicide-resistant" Monsanto beans.

A study conducted in 2003 showed that the spraying had not only destroyed the nearby peasants' crops: their chickens had died and other animals, especially horses, were adversely affected. Humans contracted violent nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and skin lesions from the herbicide. There were reports of animals born near GMO soybean fields with severe organ deformities, of deformed bananas and sweet potatoes, of lakes suddenly filled with dead fish. Rural families reported that their children developed grotesque blotches on their bodies after the spraying of nearby soybean fields.

Added damage occurred to valuable forest land, which was bulldozed to make way for mass-cultivation of soybean, especially in the Chaco region near Paraguay and the Yungas region. The loss of forests created an explosion of cases of medical problems among indigenous inhabitants, including leishmaniasis, a parasite transmitted by sand flies, which is expensive to treat and leaves severe scars and other deformities. In Entre Rios, more than 1.2 million

acres of forest were removed by 2003, at which point the government finally issued an order forbidding further deforestation.

To convince wary Argentine farmers to use Monsanto Roundup Ready soybean seeds in 1996, the company had made grand claims of a miracle crop, arguing that its GMO soybean was genetically modified to be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

The company assured farmers that they would therefore require dramatically less herbicide and chemical treatment for their soybean crops than with regular soybean. As Roundup kills virtually everything that grows aside from Monsanto GMO soybeans, only one, rather than several, herbicides would be necessary-or so went Monsanto's PR campaign. Grand promises were also made about higher yields and lower costs, feeding the desperate farmers with dreams of a better economic situation. Not surprisingly, the response was hugely positive.

On average, the Roundup soybean crops gave between 5% to 15% lower yields than traditional soybean crops. Also, far from needing less herbicide, farmers found vicious new weeds which needed up to three times as much spraying as before. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics from 1997 showed that expanded plantings of Roundup Ready soybeans resulted in a 72% increase in the use of glyphosate.23

According to the Pesticides Action Network, scientists estimated that plants genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant will actually triple the amount of herbicides used. Farmers, knowing that their crop can tolerate or resist being killed off by the herbicides, will tend to use them more liberally. Monsanto never conducted rigorous independently verifiable tests of the negative health effects of feeding cattle, let alone humans, with the raw Monsanto soybeans saturated with Roundup herbicides. The increased use of chemicals led to larger costs than with non-GMO seeds.24

But by the time the farmers realized this, it was too late. By 2004, GMO soybean had spread across the entire country, and the seeds all depended on Monsanto Roundup pesticide. A more perfect scheme of human bondage would be hard to imagine.

Yet Argentina was not the only target land for the project of gene-manipulated agriculture crops. The Argentine case was but the first stage in a global plan that was decades in the making and absolutely shocking and awesome in its scope.

Notes

1. Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, Genetically Modified Food Crops in the United States, http://www.pewagbiotech.org, August 2004. 2. F. William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, Pluto Books Ltd., London, 2004, Chapters 10-11. John Perkins, The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, 2004. 3. U.S. Embassy, Document #1976 Buenos06130, 20 September 1976, part of declassified US State Department documents. Cynthia J. Arnson (editor), ArgentinaUnited States Bilateral Relations, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., 2003, pp. 39-40. Kissinger's conversation with Guzzetti in Santiago was first reported by Martin Edwin Andersen, "Kissinger and the Dirty War", The Nation, 31 October 1987. Andersen's article was based on a memo by Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Patricia Derian, who was told the story by Hill during a visit to Argentina in March 1977. Hill demarche on human rights: Buenos Aires 3462, May 25,1976, "Request for Instructions", State 129048,25 May 1976, "Proposed Demarche on Human Rights." 4. Francisco J. Ruge-Murcia, Heterodox Inflation Stabilization in Argentina, Brazil and Israel, Centre de recherche et developpement en economique (C.R.D.E.) and Departement de sciences economiques, Universite de Montreal, May 1997. 5. Asad Ismi, "Cry for Argentina", Briarpatch, September 2000. 6. David Rockefeller, "Lo que pienso de Martinez de Hoz", Revista Gente, 6 April 1978. 7. Government of Argentina Ministry of Education, La Dictadura Militar en Argentina:24 de marzo de 1976-10 de diciembre de 1983, http://www.me.gov.ar/ efeme/24demarzo/dictaduni.html, 2001. Cavallo was indicted in 2006 by the Government of Argentina for knowingly conspiring with US banker Mulford in a 2001 debt swap that was declared "fraud" and cost Argentina tens of billions more in debt servicing to Mulford and other creditor banks. That swap led to the Argentine default later in 2001. Details in MercoPress, Former Argentine Leader Indicted for 2001 Bond Swap, http://www.mercopress.com. Details of the debt fraud are also well described in Jules Evans, Bankers Accused of Dirty Tricks in Argentina, http://www.euromoney.com. 28 January 2002. 8. Jules Evans, Bankers Accused of Dirty Tricks in Argentina, 28 January 2002, http://www.euromoney.com/publicl markets/banking! news/30jan02-1.html. 9. Canadian Market Research Centre Market Support Division (TCM) Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Market Brief The Biotechnology Market in Argentina: Government Support for Biotechnology, May 2003, http://www.ats.agr.gc.callatin/3nO_e.htm.

10. American Chemical Society, "Growing Evidence of Widespread GMO Contamination", Environmental Science & Technology: Environmental News, 1 December 1999, Vol. 33, No. 23, pp. 484 A-485 A. 11. Judy Carman, The Problem with the Safety of Roundup Ready Soybeans, Flinders University, Southern Australia, http://www.biotech-info.net. August 1999. 12. UK Soil Management Initiative, Frequently Asked Questions: Advantages and Disadvantages of Minimum Tillage, http://www.smLorg.uk. 13. Ibid. 14. Sue Branford, "Argentina's Bitter Harvest': New Scientist, 17 April 2004, pp. 4043. See also Organic Consumers Association, New Study Links Monsanto's Roundup to Cancer, 22 June 1999, Little Marais, MN. 15. Lillian Joensen and Stella Semino, "Argentina's Torrid Love Affair with the Soybean", Seedling, October 2004, p. 3. This is an excellent summary of the interplay between the foreign debt crisis, the IMF policies of privatization, and the transformation of Argentine agriculture by GMO seeds. The authors are with the Rural Reflection Group, in Argentina. 16. Ibid., p. 4. 17. Ibid., p. 3. 18. Lillian Joensen, op. cit., p. 3. 19. GRAIN, Monsanto's Royalty Grab in Argentina, http://www.grain.org, October 2004. 20. Sue Branford, "Why Argentina Can't Feed Itself," The Ecologist, October 2002. H. Paul, R. Steinbrecher, et aI., Argentina and GM Soybean: The Cost of Complying with US Pressure, EcoNexusBriefing, 2003, http://www.econexus.info. David Jones, "Argentina and GM Soy-Success at What Cost?" Saturday Star, South Africa, 19 June 2004.

21. Lillian Joensen, op.cit., p. 5. 22. Lennart Hardell, Miikael Eriksson, "A Case-Control Study of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Exposure to Pesticides", Cancer, 15 March 1999. A joint USANew Zealand independent research organization, SoyOnlineService, states that contrary to widely promoted claims of health and dietary benefits, "[ s loy foods contain trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and affect pancreatic function. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors led to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders. Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D, needed for strong bones and normal growth. Phytic acid in soy foods results in reduced bioavailabilty of iron and zinc which are required for the health and development of the brain and nervous system. Soy also lacks cholesterol, likewise essential for the development of the brain and nervous system. Megadoses of

phytoestrogens in soy formula have been implicated in the current trend toward increasingly premature sexual development in girls and delayed or retarded sexual development in boys ... Soy isoflavones are phyto-endocrine disrupters. At dietary levels, they can prevent ovulation and stimulate the growth of cancer cells. Eating as little as 30 grams (about 4 tablespoons) of soy per day can result in hypothyroidism with symptoms of lethargy, constipation, weight gain and fatigue." in Myths & Truths About Soy Foods printed in SoyOnlineService.co.nz. 23. Cited in Royal Society of New Zealand, Genetic Engineering-an Overview, 4. Environmental Aspects of Genetic Engineering, in http://www.rsnz.org/topics/ biollgmover/4.php. 24. Genetic Concern, New Study Links Monsanto's Roundup to Cancer, June 1999, in http://www.biotech-info.net/glyphosate_cancer.html.