TRNN.COM
21 November 2010
Ben Dangl: President Lugo hasn’t delivered on promises to the farmers who brought him to power, while transgenic soy farms expand
Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and a series of Brazilians agribusinesses are flexing their muscles in Paraguay, currently occupying 25% of all arable land for the production of genetically modified soy for export. The losers are Paraguay’s peasant farmers, and they’ve mobilized to defend themselves, including getting a president into power who promised to help them. But as Ben Dangl reports, for a serious of reasons, President Lugo has converted into an enemy of the same farmers that got him into power in the first place.