The Soybean Wars

Still Eating Tofu

Stuck in DC and catching up on email I see that a number of my friends are wondering if Americans contribute to the problems in Paraguay by buying tofu and biodiesel.

The direct answer is no, American farmers produce more than enough soy for our own consumption.  Plus there is no chance Paraguayan beans could compete in the US market because of tariffs and US farm subsidies.  Nearly all of South America’s soybeans are sold to the Chinese who have developed a taste for soy-fed animals to go along with their growing economic prowess.

It could be argued that American foreign policy is responsible for the past dictatorship and that the current fledgling democracy is a result of our post-Soviet disinterest in the region.

But going forward what Paraguayans need right now is an effective government where more than 20% of the population can successfully petition politicians to address their needs.  That doesn’t exist now and the results are peasants living in squalor who are poisoned from pesticides, soy growers who defend their land with shotguns, and politicians who buy votes for $10 each.

As a journalist I think the answer is more international scrutiny.  If just a handful of reporters went down to watch the elections in April (and spent more than a few days there) my personal opinion is that things will begin to change and democracy will take a firmer root.

Despite all I have heard about the ills of soybeans in Paraguay I think they can help in this regard.  Agricultural industrialization is industrialization nonetheless and soybeans have brought development, mobilized peasants, and encouraged soy growers to take an active interest in national politics.  So to end this blog on an up note, Paraguay is in transition… most likely to something better.

There is much left in Paraguay to report on so I welcome anyone traveling there to reach out for my story ideas and contacts.  Many thanks to my fixer Hector Gatti and photographer Carlos Bittar.  I highly recommend each. 

Senator Alfredo Jaeggli and his Secretary, Forenzia

Everyone I interviewed blames the Paraguayan government for the negative impacts of soy.  The corruption, the lack of economic and social programs, and the selective enforcement of laws.  My last interview was with Senator Alfredo Jaeggli, a former race car driver who decided 18 years ago to become a politician for the opposition.

Jaeggli chomped on a cigar and readily agreed with my conclusions that soybeans are very good for the 20% of the country who enjoy the benefits of democracy and that many people are left out.  But he gave very unsatisfying answers for why people are left out, mostly owing to big government and ignorant voters.  His only wisdom: “sometimes countries have to go all the way to the bottom before they can come up.”

Forenzia, Jaeggli’s secretary, was more telling if unwittingly so. 

Forenzia was an attractive 22-year-old in a pink business suit with olive skin and hair dyed blonde.  Her cell phone was pink as was her purse, wallet, and hair braids.  Her family is well connected and she started working for the government right out of high school.  She says she likes working for the Senator because it pays well and she doesn’t have to do much.  She had pictures of herself all over her office.

Forenzia knew nothing about the peasants selling their land and moving to Asuncion to beg for money.  She didn’t know that people sold their votes in order to pay for school and she didn’t have an opinion about the Indians squatting in the town square.  She was, however, upset about Paraguay’s slow internet connection that made it hard to IM her friends working elsewhere in the government.

“There is a monopoly here that charges the private companies too much money so they can’t bring anything faster than 64 megabytes per second.”

I asked if her boss could do anything about it and she rolled her eyes and laughed, “I guess so.  I should ask him.”

Carving a Path to the Future Through the Trash

The people pushed out by soy typically come to one of Asuncion's three shanty towns where they hope to (eventually) find work.  One is behind Paraguay's legislative building and another is closer to the suburbs. The oldest one is Cateura, so named because it was built from the landfill of the same name that looms in the background. 

Everything in Cateura is built from trash--houses, wagons, even soccer fields.  The streets closer to the dump are actually carved from the garbage itself and some shacks seem to be just plopped in the middle piles of refuse that blow around like sand dunes.  During the daytime you can only find girls in the slum.  The men, women and boys are at the dump working.

More of my photos below.

A Priest in Wolf’s Clothes

Fernando Lugo was tense during our first formal interview.  I didn’t see this, but my photographer did. 

My first impression of the priest-turned-presidential candidate was that he was a politician through and through.  No different from the pols I meet in the States—slippery with a glass smile and an eye on the time.  His responses were short and calculated and he resisted all my efforts to bridge the reporter/source gap. 

Why do people call this guy special?

Looking at the photographs, though, I pushed for a second meeting where I found a priest trying hard to play the part of a politician.

The Brazilians

I asked Lena Rigley, the wife of a Brazilian soy grower, to read from the police report filed shortly after their soy plantation was invaded in 2001:

“Approximately 50 people who call themselves peasants without land who live by the road came to the property violently with firearms. A group went directly to where the machinery is kept and another group went to kick-in the house door. One of the invaders screamed if they don’t come out they will kill them. They couldn’t see their faces because it was dark. The other group immediately set fire to the farm machinery and also burned the storage area.”

The Chemicals

Here is a list of the chemicals used in soy production in Paraguay:

The main one being Glyphosate (Roundup Ready)
Pyrethrin
Triazole
Strobilurinas

The last three chemicals are relatively benign. Strobilurnias for instance is a fungicide used on food products and golf courses. The US Environmental Protection Agency issues only moderate risks to aquatic animals when it’s filtered through certain soils and says these three fall below their level of concern.

However, use of Glyphosate is more complicated and raises ample concern.

The Squatters

Driving along highway 6 in Paraguay’s eastern Altro Parana department we encountered a community of landless squatters about 40 kilometers south of Santa Rita. There were 180 mostly women and children living in 57 shacks not 10 feet from the road. The nicer dwellings had floors raised off the dirt, rough sawn planks for walls, and a corrugated tin roof. The more modest ones were sticks tarped in black plastic.

“We were expelled by the people in blue helmets.” Referring to the national police, the community’s leader Raul Demonte explained how they once occupied the land up the hill until the police came and moved them off.

“In the olden time we lived here in the virgin woods by logging. Then came the Brazilians with their soy and their technology to exploit the soy,” Demonte says. “This is a life no Paraguayan citizen deserves to live.”

More photos by Carlos Bittar below.

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An interesting/depressing side note to the last post I forgot to mention. After Lugo left the local press swarmed me to ask why Americans are interested in Lugo. I said he was a compelling character and Americans are interested in a more lefty South America. I was then asked how Americans feel about supporting past regimes who persecuted South American liberals. I said most Americans don’t know about it, but those who do are embarrassed. I hope I am correct.

Edit (8/20/07): seems both the major papers ran a story on my interviews with Lugo (no permalink, but for now they are here and here).  They both quoted my suggestion that Lugo doesn't have an air of corruption.   There is a genuine thirst for more political transparency here so I'm happy they lead with that.

Lugo’s Road to Hoqueta

Today the road to Horqueta was clogged with flatbeds driving supporters to see Fernando Lugo speak. An announcement went out on the radio that the former Bishop turned presidential candidate would be speaking in the town square. More than 600 people came from as far as 50 miles away. They dressed in wool hats and scarves and parkas because it was cold and undoubtedly colder in the back of a flatbed traveling 40 mph.

When they got to the square there was no food or alcohol to greet them like there was at Ovelar’s rally’s.

But they didn’t care, they came to see Lugo and they only whispered to each other as he passed to the stage. At first the people sat patiently through the pre-speeches but as they dragged on for more than two hours the people got bored and began drifting toward the food vendors. When finally Lugo came to the microphone they all perked up and crowded the stage.