Growing Doubt

Transgenic soybeans are grown around the school... as well as transgenic corn... and they spray with glyphosate. They use ground sprayers, something we here in Argentina call "spiders"... as well as spray planes. What I saw, was that they did not respect the children that were here at the school. At the school our attention was drawn... to the number of dermatological lesions, lesions in the skin that the children had. While we were wondering about this... one of the pupils said we should look outside... because five meters from the school door where we were standing... a sprayer was passing by. Like any rural school this school was surrounded by fields... and these were fields of transgenic soybeans. We did not see any government inspectors... making sure there was no spraying in any situation... where the health of school children was jeopardized. Both the children and their teachers were getting sprayed. The agricultural workers, the teachers... people who have to earn a living every day do not have a choice. They have to accept it. For the politicians it meant power. Those who needed to make the decision, those who needed to monitor... the money from the soybeans gave them power and continues to empower them. So when something gives you power and helps you stay in a position... you are not going to monitor it. You don't want to see things. And the children that I see? They have learning problems, allergies. There are mothers who voluntarily decide to have their tubes tied. I believe this is so that the child is not... (I'm sorry...) is not born with any disease. Living in the heart of GE soya crops like in our region... being the only people in the area... who have turned to another production, an alternative, not using agrochemicals... was a big challenge. The biggest difficulty is... ...enforcing my rights. There are no laws that penalize neighbors who sprayed. There is no solidarity among neighbors with an alternative producer like us. I have to make my own buffer zone in the field... and lose 200 to 300 meters on each side... if I want an organic crop. Otherwise, it will be regarded as a conventional crop... ...and I can't put on a surcharge. I was never able to get the neighbors to stop spraying. Even with the wind. These provinces are provinces... that have drastically changed their production models... and have turned to the agro-industrial production of transgenic soybeans. And this makes them economically dependent... on the outcomes of the campaigns of each year... and on the revenue that is generated from exporting these grains. So, it's a pity that some political officials... do not understand that in these times in which we live... they cannot go on believing in... "magic" solutions. We think... we are losing a historic opportunity to show the world... what can be done when a people decides to defend its dignity... starting with defending its way of ecological production... of non-pollutant production, its way of production that guarantees food... and not genetically modified substances that do not provide nourishment... that do not generate work, but only succeed in widening the gap... between the few who end up getting money and the many who end up getting ill. In that sense, our countries know what we're talking about: We have more cancer, we have more diseases... we have less health, we have less freedom and less dignity. If we don't consider what is happening... we will be leaving our children only with hard and difficult things... and no independence whatsoever. We are going to leave the land depleted... we are going to leave the water poisoned... we are going to leave incurable diseases. Transgenic soybeans are using and poisoning all the land. To anyone who is watching this video, I would say: What economic independence are you going to have if you are left without the land? Before you decide, in your country... to start growing transgenic soybeans, come and see. Look at what is going to be left of your fields.