"La Puce" wrote in message
oups.com...

Glyphosphate ...

A YEAR ago, Colonia Loma Senes was just another rural backwater in the
north of Argentina. But that was before the toxic cloud arrived. "The
poison got blown onto our plots and into our houses," recalls local
farmer Sandoval Filemon. "Straight away our eyes started smarting. The
children's bare legs came out in rashes." The following morning the
village awoke to a scene of desolation. "Almost all of our crops were
badly damaged. I couldn't believe my eyes," says Sandoval's wife,
Eugenia. Over the next few days and weeks chickens and pigs died, and
sows and nanny goats gave birth to dead or deformed young. Months later
banana trees were deformed and stunted and were still not bearing
edible fruit.

The villagers quickly pointed the finger at a neighbouring farm whose
tenants were growing genetically modified soya, engineered to be
resistant to the herbicide glyphosate. A month later, agronomists from
the nearby National University of Formosa visited the scene and
confirmed the villagers' suspicions. The researchers concluded that the
neighbouring farmers, like thousands of others growing GM soya in
Argentina, had been forced to take drastic action against resistant
weeds and had carelessly drenched the land - and nearby Colonia Loma
Senes - with a mixture of powerful herbicides.

To read further ...

http://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004...ml?c=on#c91824

apart from the disgusting actions of the 'neighbouring farm' environmental
fascists, from reading the article it strikes me as a combination of factors
including short sighted agricultural practises, the monopoly power of a
global corporation and the pursuit of profit and a failure of the (what
appears to be a very) free market.

rob