The human cost of agrotoxins
In 1996, the Argentinian Government approved the commercialization of transgenic soybeans and the use of the herbicide glyphosate. Argentina approved the GMO (genetically modified organism) without conducting their own studies, taking as scientific evidence only the ones published by the Monsanto Company. Since then, the country became an experimental field. In 2015, after almost 20 years, over 24,5 million hectares are sprayed with 84 million gallons of agrotoxins each year, some of them forbidden in many countries in the world. According to the information regarding the crop-sprayed towns, 13.4 million people are affected. Argentina has one of the highest rates of use of agrotoxins per person in the planet. Hundreds of studies in the scientific world are showing the human and environmental damage of the agrotoxins. Important media enterprises have perversely hidden the outrageous numbers of affected populations, and become accomplices of those directly responsible–Monsanto, politicians, important landowners and seed pools.
Fabian Tomasi, the shadow of success
In 1996, the Argentine government approved the commercialization of soybeans and the use of the herbicide glyphosate. Since then, the cultivable areas of the country became a field of experimentation. In 20 years, the use of agrotoxics in the Argentine fields increased 1057 percent. Dozens of scientific studies and medical surveys have reported the health disaster, yet the use of this poison has caused. Fabian Tomasi had been working as a farm worker since the age of 23. His job was to load agrochemicals into the crop duster airplanes that would then spray the fields in the area. He was diagnosed with severe toxic polyneuropathy and the progression of his disease prevents him from eating solids, walking with ease and using his hands. He lives in a small prefabricated house in Basavilbaso with his daughter Nadia and his 80-year-old mother, Bety, who assist him with great love and dedication.
