Argentina's GM Disaster 

GeneWatch v.17, n.1 1may04

When genetically modified (GM) soya was first planted in Argentina, it was promoted as an economic miracle. Indeed, while the country's economy collapsed under a regime of fiscal 'austerity' imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, soya production almost doubled by 2002, and yields nearly tripled. It became a vital cash crop, and was planted on more than half of the country's arable farmlands. However, seven years after its introduction, Argentina's GM soya is being hailed as an economic and environmental catastrophe.

Produced by Monsanto, the soya is modified for resistance to the company's flagship pesticide, Roundup. But, as a recent report in New Scientist magazine documented, farmers have had to steadily increase the amount of pesticides they use, and now use twice as much as before — a phenomenon further aggravated by soya's domination of Argentinean agriculture.

Drifting sprays of Roundup, along with other herbicides necessary to contain the spread of Roundup-resistant soya escapees, have harmed the crops, livestock, and residents of farms neighboring GM soya fields. Large farmers intent on profiting from the soya bonanza have driven an estimated 150,000 smaller farmers off their land, thereby cutting the production of milk, rice, maize, and other staple crops. And many fear that, as with any other monoculture, the sudden emergence of a pest or disease could trigger a rapid and unstoppable collapse of the entire industry.

Monsanto insists that it is not to blame for the failure of Argentina's farmers to rotate crops. However, with the accelerated development of weeds resistant to Roundup, so-called 'superweeds' have emerged, and soil bacteria needed to decompose vegetable matter have been wiped out, leaving the soil inert — all of which could have been predicted, and indeed was by many critics of agricultural biotechnology. But while the harm done in Argentina may take years to heal, perhaps it will serve as a warning to other developing countries of the false hope offered by marketers of GM crops.