The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

268 the world according to monsantorounded by soybean fields. Every time they were sprayed, she had violentmigraines, nausea, eye irritation, and joint pains. “I have talked to the technicians,”she said. “The only thing I got from them was that they warn mewhen they’re going to spray herbicide and I leave my house, with my family,for two days. They suggested that I sell my house, but where would I go?Soybeans are worth more than our lives.”Banging One’s Head Against the WallWhen I saw how Campos flew off the handle when I questioned him aboutthe environmental and health consequences of Roundup spraying, I understoodthat the subject was not a government priority. “Coming from a Europeanreporter, that question takes the cake,” he said emphatically. “Ourherbicide use is much lower than that of France. The truth is that we are theleast polluted country in the world.”The secretary of agriculture had obviously not been reading his country’snewspapers. When you go through them, you find, for example, that a judgehas opened an investigation in Rosario, following a complaint filed by a couplewhose house is surrounded by soybean fields. Their son Axel was bornwith no toes on his left foot and with severe testicular and kidney problems. 9Similarly, in Córdoba, mothers in the Ituzaingó neighborhood conducted acommunity protest to stop spraying in the nearby fields after they observedabnormal rates of cancer, particularly among children and young women.The affair caused some stir in parliament before getting lost in the maze ofthe justice system. “It’s always like that,” said Luis Castellán, an agronomistworking for an agricultural development organization in Formosa, in northernArgentina. “Whenever there is a serious environmental problem, youcannot find a single expert who dares to stand up to the powerful soy lobby.”Castellán knew what he was talking about: in February 2003, he had beencontacted by farmers from Colonia Loma Senés, a rural community in theprovince of Formosa near the border with Paraguay. They were desperatelylooking for an expert to certify the damage done to their food crops by thespraying of Roundup and 2,4-D on a seventy-five-acre plot that had been invadedby “rebel soybeans.” They belonged to a neighbor living in Paraná wholeased his land to a company from the province of Salta, which subcontractedwith another company for seeds and spraying.