The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

264 the world according to monsantoBello nodded in agreement: “We’re headed into a wall. We’re spendingmore and more and the soil is exhausted.” Bello, like Héctor Barchetta twohundred miles away, was confronted with a problem that was growing worseevery year: the resistance of weeds to glyphosate. “From an agronomic perspective,that was known beforehand,” said Pengue. “Before the advent oftransgenic soybeans, producers used four or five different herbicides, someof which were very toxic, like 2,4-D, atrazine, and paraquat.* But the alternationbetween the different products prevented weeds from developing resistanceto any single one of them. Now, the exclusive use of Roundup atany time of year has led to the appearance of biotypes that were first tolerantof glyphosate; to get rid of those weeds, it was necessary to increase theherbicide dose.† After tolerance came resistance, which can already be observedin some areas of the pampas.”“So Monsanto’s commercial argument that Roundup Ready technologyreduces herbicide use is mistaken?”“Completely,” said Bello. “I apply glyphosate twice, once after planting,the other time two months before the harvest. At first, I used less than a literof herbicide per acre; now I need twice as much.”Pengue added: “Before the advent of RR soybeans, Argentina used an averageof 1 million liters of glyphosate annually. In 2005, we reached 150 millionliters. Monsanto does not deny that there is a resistance problem andhas announced a new, more powerful herbicide with a new generation ofGMOs, but that’s not a way out of the vicious circle.”The cost for producers has been heavy. The time has passed when, toprime the pump, Monsanto offered a two-thirds discount on the price of itsherbicide. The price very soon returned to normal, which led producers toturn to generics (principally Chinese) as soon as the company’s patent expiredin 2000. But at the same time a new problem arose that further increasedcosts: what was known as “rebel soybeans” in Argentina (“volunteers”in Canada), indicating that, in South America as in North America, the samecauses produced the same effects. And as in the United States, Syngenta,Monsanto’s Swiss competitor, which manufactures atrazine and paraquat,*It will be recalled that 2,4-D is one of the components of Agent Orange; it is now (theoretically)banned in Europe and the United States. Atrazine was banned in the European Union in 2003. Asfor paraquat, which was, like Roundup, one of the most widely sold herbicides in the world, it wasbanned in the European Union on July 10, 2007.†They are Parietaria debilis, Petunia axilaris, Verbena litoralis, Verbena bonariensis, Hybanthus parviiflorus,Iresine diffusa, Commelina erecta, and Ipomoea sp.