Could Monoculture Trend in Paraguay Lead to Famine?
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
With the fight against hunger in Latin American in decline for the past two years, top officials at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) say the situation could improve slightly this year, with indexes approaching those of 2005-2015. In that decade, thanks to inclusive policies developed in Bolivia and Brazil, this scourge fell to its lowest level in the last half a century.
"Even though unfortunate factors such as the impact of the El Nino climate condition and the global economic recession contributed to increased hunger in 2016 and 2017, we are confident that in 2018 the fight against hunger will be re-energized," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in opening remarks at the organization's 35th regional summit in Jamaica in March. Despite this positive sign, Graziano added, "there will still be a spike in hunger in the region."
Sociologists and ecologists in Paraguay, in the heart of South America, were more realistic. They warned that monoculture and the use of genetically modified plants could lead to a famine (NotiSur, Oct. 6, 2017).
World Bank and IMF more optimistic
Graziano said negative factors "no longer appear with the same intensity in 2018," adding that he was encouraged by predictions by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of very high growth rates for most developed and developing countries. Despite his optimism, Graziano unveiled alarming figures that show that between 2015 and 2016, the number of people who suffer from hunger grew by 2.4 million to 42.5 million people. To further illustrate the food crisis that affects Latin American and Caribbean countries, the UN official said that about 20% of the adults in the region, or 96 million people, are obese, and about 7% of the children under 5 are overweight. Both figures surpass the world average. Diseases related to obesity kill 300,000 persons a year, he said.
"We should have a sustainable food system that guarantees a truly nutritious diet," Graziano said. "The consumption of fresh local products to replace highly processed foods is fundamental."
Paraguayan experts have particularly denounced the effects of the new model of agricultural exploitation based on agro-industrial monoculture of transgenic plants.
FAO analysts say the problem is not in the imposition of a new model of land exploitation. They point to climate change that profoundly affects agricultural systems throughout the world, most notably in countries that...
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