Articles

In the first case of its kind in Argentina, the poisoning of people through the use of pesticides has been punished. Soya farmer, Francisco Parra, and pilot of pesticide-spraying aircrafts, Edgardo Pancello, were yesterday convicted of polluting the neighbourhood of Ituzaingó Anexo with glyphosate and endosulfan. Both were given conditional sentences of three years, along with community service. A third defendant, also a soy producer, was acquitted due to lack of evidence. In 2001, a group of community activists known as the Mothers of Ituzaingó started to document the high number of miscarriages, infant deaths and illnesses in the area. According to the public attorney, 169 of the 5,000 inhabitants of Ituzaingó Anexo died from cancer between 2002 and 2010. Following the verdict, one of the claimants, environmental activist Sofía Gatica, whose baby daughter died of kidney failure shortly after birth said “It is a historic sentence, but the fact that it is only a conditional verdict is a slap into the face for the victims.” Gatica was awarded the ‘Goldman Environmental Prize’ for her courage in the ten-year battle against pesticides earlier this year. In Argentina, 370 million litres of pesticides are used every year, especially on the soy fields where animal feed for Europe’s meat industry is produced. In September, Sofìa Gatica and Maria del Milagro Godoy will talk about their experiences at the GMO Free Europe Conference, as well as at different events taking place as part of a speakers tour across Europe.