The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

in argentina: the soybeans of hunger 257Taking Over ArgentinaMiguel Campos looked crestfallen, like a good student unjustly accused bya teacher he adores. For if there was a country where Monsanto could dowhatever it wanted without the slightest obstacle, that country was certainlyArgentina. At the time Campos was talking to me, half the cultivated land inthe country was planted with transgenic soybeans—35 million acres and 37million tons harvested, 90 percent of which was exported, primarily to Europeand China. If Monsanto were to reach its goals, the company wouldtake in $160 million annually for exports to Europe alone—a jackpot.“You don’t think it was a trap?” I asked.It seemed to me that Campos pretended not to understand. “A trap?”“Well, Monsanto first created conditions favoring the spread of RR soybeansthroughout the country, then the company asked you to pay the bill.”“If that was the strategy, it was a mistake. You don’t change the rules of thegame ten years later.”“Will you pay?”“The conflict is serious, because Monsanto is threatening to attack allArgentine exports.” In a statement reported by the Dow Jones Newswireon March 17, 2005, Campos had been blunter, denouncing Monsanto’s“hoodlum-like attitude.”Ten years earlier, however, the transgenic adventure had begun like a fairytale in the country of cattle and gauchos. When the FDA authorized the saleof RR soybeans on the North American market in 1994, Monsanto had alreadyhad its eyes on the Southern Cone for some time. Its target was, ofcourse, Brazil, the world’s second-largest producer of soybeans. But the dealwas hardly in the bag because the Brazilian constitution required that transgeniccrops go through preliminary tests of their environmental impact beforetheir release was authorized. So Monsanto turned to Argentina, wherethe government of Carlos Menem, following the lead of the first Bush administration,constantly spoke of deregulation. During his ten-year rule(1989–99), Menem, who went on trial in October 2008 for illegal weaponssales, did his utmost to complete the work begun under the military dictatorship(1976–83): he dismantled what remained of the Argentine welfarestate, privatizing whatever he could and opening the country’s gates wide toforeign capital. This policy had a devastating impact on the agricultural sec-