The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

14Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina:The “United Soy Republic”The good news is that practical experience clearly demonstrates that the coexistenceof biotech, conventional and organic systems is not only possible, butis peacefully occurring around the world.—Monsanto, Pledge Report, 2005A tiny woman with an infinitely gentle gaze whom I met in January 2007 hadunderstood in her flesh that transgenic soybeans were mortal enemies. Toreach her, you have to drive for eight hours from Asunción, the capital ofParaguay, toward the Argentine border. As far as Iguazú, Ruta 7 runs throughgreen pampas with huge grazing herds of cattle, dotted with palm trees andwooded hills. Then you turn off toward Encarnación, in the department ofItapuá. As far as the eye can see, hundreds of acres of RR soybeans stretchnorth toward nearby Brazil and south to the Argentine province of Formosa.Silvino, Age Eleven, Killed by Roundup in ParaguayPetrona Talavera, age forty-six, invited me into her humble shack located atthe end of a red dirt road winding through Monsanto’s GMOs. “This is theroad where my son died,” she said, handing me a welcoming cup of maté.“I’ll fight to the bitter end to keep Paraguayan children from being poisonedby the agriculture that is killing them.” Her husband, Juan, with whom shehad raised eleven children, listened in silence.