The Argentinean case: 17 years of GM Soya plantations

About our actions as Organised Civil Society: A balance and new directions to

break the vicious circle of devastation

Stella SeminoGrupo de Reflexión Rural Argentina

stella.semino@gmail.com http://www.grr.org.ar

ACT 1: DEBT-Neoliberalism-GM SOYA1990’s Less state protection, credit lines for GM producers

Source: C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh

One province example

2001-2003 CRISIS Cultural introduction RR Soya to alleviate hunger of

the poor and poverty of middle classes

AAPRESID RR Soya Producers

Association & partner business

CÁRITAS (Catholic Church charity)Transparency

Able to train people and provide

grains to those in need)

NGO’s Transparency

Able to train people and provide

grains to those in need

FoundationsTransparency

Able to train people and provide

grains to those in need

OTHER INSTITUTIONS….

Transparency Able to train people and

provide grains to those in need

ACT 2 A successful market story with social inclusion

Expansion RR Soya monoculture

In 2004: 117,000 km2

In 2012: 187.000 km2

In 2014, the 2023 USDA projects + 6.6 m tons

Exports,local added valueSouth-south cooperation

2012Social Inclusion

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) US$475 billion (2012)

6% of the GDP is invested in education and culture, and 9.5% of the GDP in health services. (WB2013)

The Dark side of the modelNEO-Extractivism

“Although government policies after the 2001 crisis differ in many ways from those of the 1990s, current agrarian policies are not significantly distinct from those followed during the pre-crisis neoliberal period. Rather than ‘post-neoliberal’, the new model could thus be better described as ‘neo-extractivist’. With the connivance of the state, agri-business is producing the largest-ever transformation of natural capital into economic capital in the history of the region. Moreover, the latest policy developments suggest that Argentina is on the threshold of a new and deeper stage of agrarian capital expansion and wealth concen-tration, this time operating at a much larger scale.” (Cáceres,D 2014)

Other Extractives Productions

ACT 3: GM SOYA environmental impacts: LOSS OF SOIL NUTRIENTS

ADVICE FROM “EXPERTS”: TO COPE WITH DEMAND FOR AGROFUELS, ARGENTINA HAS TO DOUBLE THE

USE OF FERTILIZERS FROM 3 to 6 MT p/y

Deforestation1996-7: 0,7 M km2 2006-7: 1,7 M km2

Bad for the North, good enough for the South

ARGENTINA PARAGUAY: SOYA FUMIGATION VICTIMS

HOW TO BREACK THE VICIOUS CIRCLE ?OPTION 1: Certification for GM soya

in scale?

Coexistence of Few protected areas and large scale plantations?

Currently, 7.7% of the territory is under

protected areas. There are 36 national parks and 400 provincial natural reserves. In the last 7 years, national protected areas increased by 24% … In 2009, the National Administration regulated the Forest Law, which aims to preserve the conservation of native forests.

Option 2 : Collaboration with the Institutional organisers of Food/ GM staple Trade?

….(Rome, October 4, 2013) Today, during a meeting between La Via Campesina and the director general Jose Graziano da Silva FAO collaboration agreement was formalized which recognized the essential role of small holder food producers….MNCI 2013

Schizohprenia?

Why are FAO and EBRD promoting the destruction of peasant and family farming?

LVC, GRAIN, ETC Group, FoEI, MMM, CLOC (Incl. MNCI), 14 Sept. 2012

“We are shocked and offended by an article co-signed by Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO, and Suma Chakrabarti, President of the EBRD, that was pusblished in the Wall Street Journal on Sept. 6, 2012. In the article, they call on governments and social organisations to embrace the private sector as the main engine for global food production… the heads of these two influential international agencies make a clear call for a world wide increase in private sector investment and land grabbing. They say that the private sector is efficient and dynamic and call on companies to "double investment in the land itself…”

MARCH 2014 Dialogue between AAPRESID, ACsoja (Soya RR producer Associations),

Government Officers, several NGOs, church leaders, and MNCI (Via Campesina Argentina)

Do they/we share the same ideas about social and environmental sustainability, food production, sovereignty ?

Safe coexistence of large plantations and few family/organic producers?

How about the rest of the world? And the

sustainability of the planet?

OPTION 3: Many of us believe (as the others) that an other world is possible BUT also...

That the dialogue/negociations with the ‘neo-extractivists is not an option to break the vicious

circle of devastation. On the contrary those exchanges serve only to perpetuate the model