The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

paraguay, brazil, argentina: the “united soy republic” 287soon of Uruguay, and its power greatly exceeds that of the national governments.It’s the company that decides what seeds and what chemical productswill be used in those countries, what crops will be suppressed, and inthe end what people will eat and at what price. The recalcitrant are taken tocourt, because the patents are the final link in the totalitarian chain. All thatis done with the assistance of producers’ associations like Aapresid andCapeco, who maintain close relations with the ASA in St. Louis.”I had been able to observe myself the links that united Monsanto’s threecooperating associations. At the end of our conversation, Deputy AgricultureMinister Roberto Franco had invited me to go with him to a reception beingheld the next day on the property of Jorge Heisecke, the president ofCapeco. That evening a delegation of twenty members of the American SoybeanAssociation was expected, led by John Hoffman, who had been so hospitableto me at his Iowa farm. I had reorganized my schedule to seize thisopportunity. Unfortunately, after six hours on the road, I was never able topenetrate Heisecke’s huge estate, which was protected by armed guards, despitethe intervention of the deputy minister, who offered lame excuses.Long live the “United Soy Republic.”“Do you know how many small farmers in Paraguay have given up farmingbecause of soybeans?” I asked Palau.“At the last census, the nationwide statistics indicated that 100,000people out of a total of 6 million inhabitants were leaving the countrysideannually to settle in cities,” he answered, not surprised by my misadventures.“That amounts to between 16,000 and 18,000 families. It’s estimatedthat about 70 percent of the migrants leave because of soybeans. That’shuge, when you consider that families usually end up in slums where theylive in conditions of extreme poverty. But beyond the social problems GMOscause, the greatest impact is the loss of food security. When they leave theirland, small farmers stop producing for themselves, but also for others. Since1965, Paraguay has shifted from a food surplus to a deficit, which meansit now imports more food products than it exports. That’s why I say thatMonsanto and its allies, including in the end its competitors Syngenta andNovartis [who may eventually merge], are engaged in an imperialist, evendictatorial strategy intended to subject populations politically through tightcontrol over food supplies. Recall the ‘Santa Fé document’ published in1980, which constituted the basis of the Reagan Doctrine, in which nationalsecurity advisers presented the food supply as a political weapon that had to