Toxic Dispossession: On the Social Impacts of the Aerial Use of Glyphosate by the Sugarcane Agroindustry in Colombia
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Toxic Dispossession: On the Social Impacts of the Aerial Use of Glyphosate by the Sugarcane Agroindustry in Colombia Diana Hurtado1 · Irene Vélez‑Torres1 Accepted: 18 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Over the last five decades, the total area cultivated with sugarcane in Colombia has increased by 280%. The consolidation of the sugarcane agroindustrial cluster has been based on a process of modernization that has included the aerial spraying of more than 783,442 kg of glyphosate since 2001. The resulting increase in productivity for the sugar mills has been accompanied by what we refer to as “toxic dispossession” of ethnic communities in the Alto Cauca region. This article presents a critical examination of modern-day agroindustrial activities, particularly those pertaining to the chemical maturation of sugarcane, and provides evidence for the environmental and social damage that the industry has generated for rural ethnic communities, whose well-being, livelihoods and traditional territories have deteriorated rapidly.
Introduction Food systems have changed dramatically during the last five decades causing great concern within academia and activist sectors on the adverse effects of new agricultural technologies. The increase of genetically modified food (Walters 2004, 2006), flex crops (Borras et al. 2016) and land grabbing (Brisman et al. 2014; Goyes et al. 2017) have attracted the attention of critical scholars, who have attempted to understand Global North/Global South power relations in the context of industrial food production and consumption. The chemical maturation of sugarcane is a technical development implemented by sugar industrialists in Colombia, which has been tested through aerial fumigation in the Cauca River valley since the 1980s. The main chemical substances used for the maturation of sugarcane have been formulations based on glyphosate isopropylamine salts and glyphosate monoammonium, despite substantial evidence of the negative effects on the environment and on human health caused by exposure to the residues of these chemical substances (ASOCAÑA 2010; Camacho and Mejía * Irene Vélez‑Torres [email protected] Diana Hurtado [email protected] 1
School of Natural Resources and Environmental Engineering, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 # 100‑00, Cali, Colombia
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2013; Cassalet Dávila et al. 1995; Groot de Restrepo and Ortiz 2005; IARC 2015a, 2017; Nivia 2000; Vargas 2004). The use of glyphosate stimulates the ripening process, allowing for the increased production of sucrose by 25%. As a result, glyphosate is currently used in more than 70% of the total sugarcane harvested annually (ASOCAÑA 2016b). Although there is already abundant evidence on the negative effects of glyphosate in relation to the environment and human health (Antoniou et al. 2011, 2012; Bolognesi et al. 2009; Nivia 2000; Romano et al. 2009), little has been written about how these toxic effects have acted as a mechanis
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