bacon and beans: how trade in pork and
soy causes hunger, pollution and human
rights violations
bente hessellund andersen, friends of
the earth denmark
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Far from contributing to the
production of enough food for all,
Danish pig production is a perfect
example of the way in which a
combination of intensive agricultural
practices and liberalized
international trade can lead to
social disruption, environmental
damage and even hunger in different
regions of the world.
Denmark is a small country, yet it
still manages to produce 25 million
pigs every year which it exports
primarily to rich ‘overfed'nations
such as Germany , the UK and Japan.
Since it has so little land, it
relies heavily on imported soy feed,
80% of which comes from Argentina
.
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soy stresses in latin america
Soy production results in a gradual
transfer of critical nutrients from
Argentina to Denmark , causing problems in
both countries. Argentinean soil is
depleted, as most of the above-soil organic
matter is removed during soybean harvest.
Soy is also particularly efficient in
extracting nutrients from the soil, meaning
it can be grown without expensive
fertilizers for several years. This is
cost-effective in the short-term, but
eventually leads to soil erosion and
desertification.
Increasing soy production is also
leading to dramatically increased rates of
deforestation at the core of the Amazon
forest in the centre-west region of Brazil
, in the Interior Atlantic forest in the
Misiones Province in Argentina , in the
Chiquitano forests in Bolivia , and in the
Parana forest in Paraguay among other
places.The soy boom has turned highly
varied landscapes consisting of small
farms, forests, grasslands and other
biologically and culturally diverse
ecosystems into oceans of monoculture. As
soy production is not labor intensive, its
expansion has led to the depopulation of
the countryside. All over the region, small
family farms are being taken over, often
forcefully, contributing to the erosion of
rural traditions, unemployment and
poverty.
The soy bean boom has hit women (who
play a central role in running family
farms) and indigenous peoples (whose lands
are often impacted) the hardest. Some 60
million indigenous people around the world
are almost entirely dependent on forests to
supply key elements needed for their
survival, including food, fuelwood and
medicine.
pork problems in europe
On the other side of the world, the
Danish pig industry is so intensive that it
releases nitrogen and other fertilizers
into the surrounding environment via manure
and evaporation. Danish pig farms generate
25-40 tonnes of liquid manure per hectare
each year, and lakes, streams, fjords and
inner waters suffer from severe oxygen
deficits. Evaporated ammonia – including
the 50,000 tonnes that reach surrounding
countries, such as Sweden – also degrades
bogs, moors, meadows, dunes, commons and
some woodlands. Almost half of this
nitrogen (82,000 tonnes out of a total of
166,000) is imported into the country in
fodder.
starving despite the soy
Danish pig production contributes to
hunger in Argentina. In spite of the vast
and fertile agricultural land in the
country, ongoing economic and agricultural
crises mean that Argentina has difficulty
feeding its own population. Fifteen million
people (38.5 per cent of the population)
live below the poverty line, and Argentina
was listed by the Food and Agriculture
Organization as one of the 35 countries
around the world facing a food crisis in
2004. Although the situation abated
somewhat in 2005, it is still more
profitable for landowners to sell or rent
their land for soy production than to grow
crops for local consumption, and local
supplies of milk, meat and vegetables are
disappearing. In Argentina, 150,000 farms
have been lost in recent years, and at the
same time the area used for soy production
has now grown to 14 million hectares.
Similar restructuring is taking place in
Europe. Pig farming in Denmark is
increasingly dominated by large industrial
farms, and an average of eight small farms
are lost every day. Land prices have
rocketed, discouraging new farmers from
setting up. The largest ‘farmers' are now
moving eastwards – to Poland, Lithuania,
Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Ukraine and
Russia – to avoid Danish regulations and
public hostility. Although they are
financially supported by the Danish state,
these companies do not always abide by
Danish environmental legislation despite
their being obliged to do so.
Industrial pig farming is thus in turn
being imposed on Eastern Europe as well, in
a new form of colonization, with local
rural employment and production in yet
another region of the world about to
succumb to the impacts of the Danish pig
industry.
soy harming health and the
environment
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The
increasing prevalence of soy in the
Argentinean diet is developing into a
national health problem. Some soup
kitchens for impoverished people serve
donated soy-based meals, which are
generally not tested for pesticide
residues and can have severe impacts on
children in particular. Argentinean
nutritionists and the government have
recommended that soy should not be part
of the diet for children under the age
of five. Furthermore, most soy grown in
Argentina today, such as Monsanto's
Roundup Ready soy, is genetically
modified. Rogue soy plants and Roundup
resistant superweeds, combined with a
no-tillage practice, have actually
increased the already large amounts of
herbicides being used. Aerial
fumigation hinders communities trying
to grow crops, and contributes to very
serious health problems as observed in
Ituzaingo in Cordoba Province where
cancer rates are increasing
dramatically. the violence of soy
production The introduction of soy is
also leading to widespread evictions
and unemployment in Argentina and
surrounding countries.
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In recent years, the World Bank forced
Argentina to open its borders to
transnationals associated with the seed and
agro-chemical industry, such as Monsanto,
which are then able to purchase
legally-binding contracts for growing soy.
In many instances, the small farmers that
have been farming the land for generations
are forcibly removed, as they have no legal
proof of land ownership. In Paraguay,
police forcibly evicted the Tekojoja
community in the Caaguazú Department from
their lands in June 2005. Two people were
killed, 130 arrested (including women and
children), and 270 people displaced.
Members of La Via Campesina (the
international network of peasant farmers)
have commented that: “Human rights
violations such as these are replicated
throughout the soy regions of Latin
America. Wherever the soy business expands,
people are forcibly evicted, either by
arms, or by the poisonous fumes of
crop-spraying planes.”
