by Carey Gillam
The efforts in Ituzaingó garnered international attention, but it is just one community among many around the country that are pushing back against agrochemicals. Some doctors are so concerned that they have formed a group called Doctors of Fumigated Towns to investigate and raise awareness of what they believe are clear connections between agricultural pesticide applications and a decline in health of people living near farming areas.
When the group held its first meeting at the National University of Córdoba in August 2010, 160 doctors from ten provinces and dozens of towns showed up to share stories of alarming health trends among their patients. It was at that meeting that the doctors began to grasp the potential magnitude of the problem as one after another they laid out evidence of curious birth defects, cancers, reproductive problems, and respiratory ailments.4
The group was founded and coordinated by Dr. Medardo Ávila Vázquez, a pediatrician and neonatologist from the medical faculty of the National University of Córdoba. Ávila Vázquez explained why he was driven to get involved: “The change in how agriculture is produced has brought, frankly, a change in the profile of diseases. We’ve gone from a pretty healthy population to one with a high rate of cancer, birth defects, and illnesses seldom seen before.”5
In its 2011 meeting, also held at the university in Córdoba, the group called on lawmakers to restrict pesticide use and prohibit aerial spraying. The group blamed the “multinational laboratories” for promoting a growing use of dangerous pesticides. In that meeting, the organization issued a formal declaration of what it said were “certainties”:
That the effect on health in populations located in areas subjected to constant fumigation in Argentina is considerable, and that the situation is worsening day by day, with more frequent cases of severe diseases such as cancer, spontaneous abortions, fertility disorders and births of children with congenital malformations.
That different health conditions, such as respiratory, endocrine, neurological, hematological and psychological conditions, are much more frequent in populations systematically sprayed as a result of the current agro-industrial model of production.
That the use of pesticides is increasing every year….
That as much as we would have wanted a different reality, the only truth is what we know today: the current agricultural production system is responsible for causing these health problems, as well as other serious ecological and sociological problems not mentioned here.6
By November 2015, the group had honed in on glyphosate as a key culprit in health problems after the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s classification of the chemical’s probable carcinogenicity. Glyphosate and other agrochemicals were contributing to increases in “spontaneous abortions and congenital malformations, endocrine problems such as hypothyroidism, neurological disorders or cognitive development problems” and rising cancer rates, the group said. “There is no doubt that the massive and growing exposure to pesticides modified the disease profile of Argentine rural populations and that cancer is the leading cause of death among them,” the organization said.7
About 500 miles from Córdoba, in Aviá Teraí, a volunteer network of doctors, lawyers, and scientists also has been working to convince authorities to put tighter controls on pesticide spraying, particularly from the air. The town is rustic and lacks running water, which leaves residents to rely on rainwater or other sources that can be contaminated with pesticides. The paucity of clean water also makes it more challenging to wash food and clothing, which can be contaminated by the chemicals used on the nearby fields. Many children suffer from an array of ailments, including odd hairy moles and nonmalignant tumors on their faces and bodies.8
The connections between agrochemicals and health problems in Argentina grabbed the global spotlight again in 2013 when the Associated Press (AP) published an investigation documenting the parallel phenomena of rising disease and rising use of agrochemicals in that country’s farm belt. Overall, Argentine farmers were applying more than twice as much agrochemical concentrate per acre as U.S. farmers were, an AP analysis of government and pesticide industry data found. And the news outlet documented dozens of cases around the country where agrochemicals were being used or stored improperly, increasing the exposure risks. Those applying the chemicals were mixing glyphosate with chemicals such as 2,4-D, an herbicide associated with the defoliant called Agent Orange, used on jungles during the Vietnam War, according to the news investigation. Children were noted with a range of birth defects that included malformed brains, exposed spinal cords, blindness and deafness, other neurological damage, and strange skin problems.9
Government officials largely dismissed the issue, citing “misinformation,” and said citizens were simply “dizzy and confused.” Monsanto had a similar reaction, downplaying the health concerns and saying it could not be held responsible if people applying glyphosate or other chemicals failed to use proper safety precautions. Glyphosate is far less toxic than other types of pesticides that it has replaced, the company said. And, Monsanto said, Argentines should recognize that they have benefited greatly from the farming system Monsanto’s products helped create because grain output has more than tripled since 1990.
But critics of the pesticide use say the documented health problems should not be ignored and that applications of glyphosate—used at the high volumes seen in the past two decades—must be considered more carefully. They cite the research of Andrés Carrasco, who found severe malformations from glyphosate in chicken and frog embryos significant enough to warrant further study.
Carrasco’s work, which was first reported in the local press in the spring of 2009 and then published in a scientific journal in August 2010, became a rallying cry for critics of Monsanto and its glyphosate-based Roundup Ready cropping system. Carrasco and a team of four other researchers said their work showed direct effects of glyphosate that open “concerns about the clinical findings from human offspring in populations exposed to GBH [glyphosate-based herbicides] in agricultural fields.” The findings in the lab are “compatible with the malformations observed in the offspring of women chronically exposed to GBH during pregnancy,” Carrasco argued.10 “I suspect the toxicity classification of glyphosate is too low,” he said. “In some cases this can be a powerful poison.”11
Carrasco went to great lengths to publicize his team’s findings, presenting his findings at a press conference held at the 6th European Conference of GMO-Free Regions of the European Parliament in Brussels. He also coauthored a critical report on the sustainability of GMO soy that challenged fundamental industry assertions about the benefits of the technology and called Monsanto’s dealings in Argentina “heavy-handed attempts to dominate global seed and glyphosate supplies.” That September 2010 report included a litany of warnings:
The industry claims that glyphosate is safe for people and breaks down rapidly and harmlessly in the environment. But a large and growing body of scientific research challenges these claims, revealing serious health and environmental impacts. The adjuvants (added ingredients) in Roundup increase its toxicity. Harmful effects from glyphosate and Roundup are seen at lower levels than those used in agricultural spraying, corresponding to levels found in the environment….
The cultivation of GM RR soy endangers human and animal health, increases herbicide use, damages the environment, reduces biodiversity, and has negative impacts on rural populations. The monopolistic control by agribusiness companies over GM RR soy technology and production endangers markets, compromises the economic viability of farming, and threatens food security.12
Not surprisingly, Monsanto challenged Carrasco’s assertions and the credibility of his research. The company said his methodology was flawed and used unrealistic exposure scenarios. “Public health experts agree that Carrasco’s experiments with frog and chicken embryos are not predictive of health effects in humans or wildlife,” the company said in a posting on its website.13 “Regulatory authorities and independent experts agree that glyphosate d
oes not cause adverse reproductive effects in adult animals or birth defects in offspring of these adults exposed to glyphosate, even at doses far higher than relevant environmental or occupational exposure.”14
At the time, Carrasco was generally well regarded. Not only was he a neuroscientist at the University of Buenos Aires with expertise in embryonic development, but he was also head of the research department at the Ministry of Defense and principal investigator and past president of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), a highly respected Argentine research institute.
In part because of the high regard for Carrasco’s work and the troubling nature of his findings, a group of environmental lawyers filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Argentina seeking a ban on glyphosate, and the Ministry of Defense announced a ban on glyphosate use on some of its land that was used for agricultural production. Activists and others who had long been convinced that agrochemicals were to blame for health problems in their communities rallied around the scientist.
But Carrasco also quickly found himself with multiple enemies after he went public with his work on glyphosate. The Chamber of Agricultural Health and Fertilizers (CASAFE), which represents Monsanto and the other agrochemical industry interests in Argentina, sent representatives to visit Carrasco’s laboratory looking for documents related to his research, the scientist told the press. The scientist also reported receiving anonymous threatening phone calls. And he and a group of activists were reportedly physically attacked at an August 2010 gathering in the small farming town of La Leonesa, where Carrasco was scheduled to speak about his glyphosate study. Press accounts said Carrasco and a colleague locked themselves inside a car as an angry mob yelled threats and beat on the vehicle. The minister of science, technology and productive innovation, Lino Barañao, considered a chief government supporter of Monsanto, discounted Carrasco’s findings and criticized him for sharing his results with news outlets before they were published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Chemical Research in Toxicology a year and a half later.15
When Carrasco died from an extended illness at the age of sixty-seven in May 2014, he was described in the press as one of Monsanto’s “most difficult public relations problems.”16
Javier Souza, a regional coordinator for the Pesticide Action Network in Latin America, said that despite the questions raised about glyphosate by Carrasco and others, the power and prestige of the agrochemical companies combined to keep the chemical in common use. “The concerns are very great,” he said. “There is increasing evidence on the possible effect of glyphosate on health, yet both business and family producers are increasingly using it.”17
A group of fifteen Argentine farmers and their eight children tried to take their concerns about Roundup-related health problems to court in February 2012, suing Monsanto and other companies over allegations that the farmers’ use of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides in growing tobacco on their family farms had caused birth defects in their children. The farmers would mix and spray the pesticides from applicators they carried on their backs, and they often were accompanied in the fields by their spouses. Although at the time they thought they were handling one of the safest chemicals available in agriculture, they now believe their exposure to the weed killer caused their children to suffer a range of problems, including spina bifida. Not only were they exposed when they applied the herbicides, but the chemical also contaminated the farmers’ nontobacco crops, water wells, and streams, they claimed. “Monsanto has marketed glyphosate as posing little or no risk to human or environmental health when in fact Monsanto knew or had reason to know that aforementioned herbicide is a reproductive toxin, teratogenic, genotoxic and otherwise harmful,” the farmers claimed. They said they were encouraged by Monsanto to use large amounts of the weed killer, “frequently and in quantities beyond what would be necessary for effective weed control. Defendants did this purely to increase profit.”18
The farmers tried to pursue their lawsuit in the United States, but a Delaware judge dismissed the suit in November 2015, saying the claims were too vague and giving the farmers an option to amend their complaints against Monsanto.19 The farmers then refiled in January 2016 and have continued to press their claims.
The United States government has been no idle observer of the angst in Argentina. Indeed, the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires kept a close eye on the developments, reporting updates to the U.S. secretary of state, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and others as Argentina wrestled with what, if anything, to do about the pesticide concerns. Cables obtained and released by WikiLeaks provide some hints of the level of the embassy’s interest and action and demonstrate in many cases that U.S. officials were eager to promote and sustain the use of glyphosate. In one cable dated May 7, 2009, shortly after Carrasco’s research came to light, the embassy wrote that the “campaign against the use of glyphosate” appeared to be driven “more by local politics than health concerns.” The embassy called Carrasco’s findings “unverified” and said that while both the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health were expressing concerns about glyphosate, the National Service of Health and Agrifood Quality (SENASA) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation were defending glyphosate’s use. The embassy said Monsanto had the largest share of the glyphosate market in Argentina, estimated at 40 percent, making the company “the most prominent and vulnerable victim” of the “attacks” on glyphosate. The embassy said it was providing information to SENASA as it built a case for continued glyphosate use in Argentina.20
The embassy concluded that it was unlikely the country would implement a ban on glyphosate because the economic impact could be substantial, with soybean production estimated to drop by 20 percent without glyphosate to help control weeds. The cable concluded with a note reassuring U.S. agencies that Argentine support for biotech seeds and for glyphosate was unlikely to be disrupted. Too much money was at stake:
Argentina has long been an ally of the United States with respect to biotechnology promotion in various international negotiations, and Roundup Ready biotech soybeans are Argentina’s most important export crop. Post contacts within the Secretariat of Agriculture assure us that Argentina will continue to support biotechnology … and none of our contacts believe that the GOA will go so far as to ban the use of glyphosate, or Roundup Ready soybeans.21
The United States had good reason to support the notion that glyphosate use in South America was safe. Not only were sales of glyphosate worth billions of dollars to U.S.-based Monsanto, but also, starting in the year 2000, glyphosate had been a key tool in a program promoted by the U.S. government to fight the South American drug trade. U.S. officials believed glyphosate, sprayed either from the ground or from the air, was an effective way to wipe out crops of opium poppy, used to make heroin, and coca crops used for cocaine. Colombia was a key target for the mission. Members of Congress worried that “Plan Colombia” could jeopardize the health of people living in sprayed regions, as well as damage the environment, but other U.S. leaders saw the program as an effective way to remove a lucrative source of income from Colombian drug groups. The U.S. Department of State reassured those who were worried about glyphosate, reporting that the EPA had found that “there is no evidence of significant human health or environmental risks from the spraying” in Colombia.22 Under the program, the United States provided technical and scientific advice, the glyphosate herbicide, fuel, spray aircraft, and a limited number of escort helicopters. The actual spray aircraft were piloted by either U.S. citizens, Colombians, or third-country national contractors. The U.S. government hoped for the same arrangement in Peru, but government officials there would not agree.
The aerial spraying in Colombia also did not sit well with officials in neighboring Ecuador, who claimed glyphosate drifted across the border the countries share, harming hundreds of people who were exposed to the pesticide. An Ecuadorian commission issued a report
in 2007 that said the herbicide mixture used in the Colombia spraying was highly toxic and was causing health and environmental damage. The country asked for limits on spraying close to its border and for financial compensation for the people impacted.
The U.S. Embassy publicly appeared to stay clear of the dispute between the two countries, but privately embassy personnel expressed their “belief that glyphosate is safe” and encouraged the government in Ecuador to consider that other factors might be to blame for the health and environmental problems it was attributing to glyphosate.23 Ecuador did not back down, however, and in 2013, Colombia agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Ecuador for human and economic damage caused by the Colombian spraying of glyphosate.24
Colombia suspended the glyphosate fumigations in 2015 because of the mounting evidence of health and environmental dangers, including fears the aerial spraying might be putting people at risk for cancer. The decision came after IARC’s classification that glyphosate was a probable human carcinogen. U.S. officials pressed the Colombian government to continue the program, and by early 2017 the government had resumed the use of glyphosate, using workers to spray the chemical on the ground by hand rather than from the air.
The diplomatic interest in the glyphosate debates in Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador are only a few examples of a much broader program under which U.S. taxpayers have been footing the bill for overseas lobbying of the products developed by Monsanto and other seed and agro-chemical makers. There are hundreds of diplomatic cables between the U.S. State Department and embassies in more than one hundred countries that show State Department officials as active promoters of the types of GMO soy, corn, and cotton that took over Argentine agriculture. Expanded use of those glyphosate-tolerant crops meant more use of glyphosate and higher sales for companies producing the chemical. The cables show that U.S. officials often worked to quash any public criticism of the technology, the chemicals, and the companies, such as Monsanto, selling the products. The cables also show that U.S. diplomats supported Monsanto’s work abroad even after the company was charged with bribing an Indonesian official and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 2005. Monsanto ultimately paid a $1.5 million fine in that case.25