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News > Latin America

International Debate over GMOs, Pesticides and Health Starts in Paraguay

  • Paraguayan farmers have repeatedly protested the fumigations causing respiratory diseases and even death in their families. (Photo: EFE)

    Paraguayan farmers have repeatedly protested the fumigations causing respiratory diseases and even death in their families. (Photo: EFE) | Photo: EFE

Published 24 September 2014
Opinion

Experts from the Americas will debate for two days about the scientific and economic implications of intensive production of genetically modified cultures of cereals. 

Four academics from the United States, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil have been invited to participate in a debate titled Scientific Controversy: GMOs, Pesticides and Human Health which will take place on Thursday and Friday in the city of San Lorenzo, in the Hospital of Clinics.

The congress, which is open to the public, will also include the participation of students and researchers, said the professor of clinical diagnosis Jose Luis Insfran, according to EFE.

The topics addressed will not only cover the scientific aspect, but also the economic implications related to the model of development of countries like Paraguay, based on mass production and exportation of genetically modified soy, corn and other cereals.

“First we will discuss health concerns, the many diseases related to the use of pesticides, such as fetal malformations, unexpected miscarriages, and cancer,” said Insfran.

Other conferences will then address the issue of the “agro-export model, a model of development that excludes most of the citizens,” he added.

“The production of genetically modified corn and soy does not require any workforce, does not pay taxes, which means that the benefits remain outside, while fumigations direct affect the crops of farming families.”

The professor also criticized that the Paraguayan academics specializing in GMOs refused his invitation to participate in the congress.

Paraguay is the fourth exporter of soy in the world, an industry which, along with cattle, contributes the most to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

However the expansion of soy and corn crops provoked in ten years the rural exodus of about 900,000 rural workers to urban areas, because of the smaller demand for workers, according to the National Peasant Federation.

Paraguay is also one of the countries with the highest inequality rates in the distribution of land; according to the NGO Oxfam, about 2.5 percent of the population owns 85 percent of cultivable land, while 42 percent of Paraguayans live in the countryside.  

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