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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Latin American Organizations Campaign to Ban Monsanto | News | teleSUR English
  • Date: Fri, 1 May 2015 00:25:04 -0400

[no more cosmo flux.......]

Latin American Organizations Campaign to Ban Monsanto | News | teleSUR
English
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Latin-American-Organizations-Campaign-to-Ban-Monsanto-20150429-0014.html

Doctors, scientists and environmentalists in Argentina, and across Latin
America, are demanding a ban on Monsanto products. Over 30,000 doctors and
health professionals in Argentina are the latest to add their voice to the
fight against Monsanto, asking the federal government to ban its products
after recent studies found they may contain carcinogens, press reports
stated Tuesday. Other social organizations and researchers across Latin
America have also spoken out against Monsanto's products, signs of a larger
and more ambitious campaign to ban the agrochemical company from the whole
region. The demands come after the World Health Organization (WHO) released
a report last month with the findings that glyphosate, the active chemical
in Monsanto product Roundup, “probably causes cancer.” The chemical is also
sold by other companies under the names Cosmo Flux, Baundap, Glyphogan,
Panzer, Potenza and Rango. According to Argentina's union of medical
professionals, Fesprosa, glyphosate, “not only causes cancer. It is also
associated with increased spontaneous abortions, birth defects, skin
diseases, and respiratory and neurological disease.” RELATED: Monarch
Butterfly Population Alarmingly Low Due to Monsanto's Roundup “In our
country glyphosate is applied on more than 28 million hectares. Each year,
the soil is sprayed with more than 320 million liters, which means that 13
million people are at risk of being affected, according to the Physicians
Network of Sprayed Peoples (RMPF),” said Fesprosa in a press statement
earlier this month. The union, which represents over 30,000 doctors and
health specialists in the country, also asked for the chemical to be banned
from the country, and force agribusinesses to change their structure in
order to not be dependent on chemicals. This includes stop using
genetically modified plants. Glyphosate is used mainly on genetically
modified crops – which have been adapted to tolerate the chemical so
farmers can spray it on their fields to kill weeds but not their crops. The
product is common not only in Argentina, but all of Latin America.
According to Carlos Vicente, a representative of GRAIN, a non governmental
organization that promotes sustainable agriculture, glyphosate was first
introduced to the region in the 1970's and its use spread rapidly through
the use of Monsanto products. According to Greenpeace Andino, the use of
agrochemicals in Argentina in particular has increased by 858 percent over
the last 22 years. Today, there are some 50 million hectares of genetically
modified soy crops in Latin America, where 600 million liters of the
chemical are used each year, Vicente told Inter Press Service. RELATED:
Monsanto Pays US 600K for Underreporting Use of Toxins Roundup Ready crops
are particularly common in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and
Uruguay. These five countries alone comprise of 83 million hectares of
genetically modified crops, according to Javier Souza, coordinator of Latin
American pesticide action network, RAP-AL. “We believe the precautionary
principle should be applied, and that we should stop accumulating studies
and take decisions that could come too late,” Souza told Inter Press
Service, referring to a principle that precautionary measures sure be taken
against a product that is believed to pose a threat to health or
environment, even if a definitive cause-effect relationship has not been
established. However, the pesticide is not only used on genetically
modified crops, but also on vegetables, tobacco, fruit trees and plantation
forests of pine or eucalyptus, as well as in urban gardens and flowerbeds
and along railways. Souza, who is also the head of the Argentine Center for
Studies on Appropriate Technologies, has called for an all out ban of the
product in the region. “We advocate a ban on glyphosate which should take
effect in the short term with restrictions on purchasing, spraying and
packaging,” said Souza. Greenpeace also demands a ban of the product in
Latin America, which it says is “damaging to both the soil and our health,”
and advocates for cleaner agricultural production techniques. “We cannot
allow the business interests of a North American multinational to be more
important than the health of the people of our region. Governments should
promote the technology and practices of organic farming to protect growers,
consumers and the environment,” said Franco Segesso, coordinator of the
campaign at Greenpeace Andino.

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Latin-American-Organizations-Campaign-to-Ban-Monsanto-20150429-0014.html.
If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the
original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english



  • [permaculture] Latin American Organizations Campaign to Ban Monsanto | News | teleSUR English, Lawrence London, 05/01/2015

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