The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

in argentina: the soybeans of hunger 271rice or corn. “El monte is a way of life,” said Santucho, “but it’s also great vegetableand animal biodiversity that is now threatened.”Indeed, the province of Santiago del Estero has the sad distinction of havingone of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Every year on average0.81 percent of the forest is cut down, compared to a worldwideaverage of 0.23 percent. For instance, between 1998 and 2002, 540,000acres simply went up in smoke and were replanted with RR soybeans.* “Between1998 and 2004, nearly 2 million acres were cut down in Argentina,”explained Jorge Menéndez, director of forests in the Ministry of Environmentand Sustainable Development. “The situation is so worrying that itkeeps me from sleeping. All the bosques nativos [native woodlands] arethreatened: they are forests of great biodiversity whose flora and fauna antedatethe discovery of America. Some animal species, such as pumas, jaguars,Andean cats, and tapirs, cannot live outside this particular ecosystem. If wedo not impose rules on soybean farming, the damage will be irreparable.”“Isn’t it the function of your ministry to define those rules?”“Yes, but we don’t carry much weight.”To recognize the magnitude of the catastrophe, all one needs to do istravel down Ruta Nacional 16 toward Salta or Chaco. Tree trunks are frequentlypiled at the roadside. Sometimes black smoke reveals the activity ofcarboneros, or charcoal makers, usually small farmers who have given uptheir land and are selling their labor to survive.The cynicism is absolute: driven off by the beast, they are reduced tofeeding it. A guard controlled access to the site. I bargained with him, andhe let me through. The four-wheel drive went down the desolate road. As faras the eye could see were unspeakable heaps of crushed shrubs, torn uptrees, and disemboweled bushes. “The bulldozers,” murmured Guido Lorenz.Lorenz is a German geographer at the University of Santiago del Estero.Along with Pedro Colonel, a forest engineer, he frequently travels aroundthe region to measure the extent of the plague. We were approaching thecharcoal ovens. Men blackened with soot were unloading carts of wood.There was the sound of a tango. The boss explained that he had been outof work and he found this job, which would last for two years. It was toclear a four-thousand-acre plot belonging to the son of the governor of the*During the same period, 290,000 acres were cut down in the neighboring province of Chaco and420,000 in Salta.