 |
| This time, it's tear gas: masked man at a farmers and student protest in Bogota, Colombia, August 2013. Photo: Nick Jaussi via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA) |
by W.T. Whitney Jr, theecologist.org, 8 June 2015
The mass spraying of glyphosate in Colombia, both on farmland and in the 'war on drugs', is a direct an attack on small scale farmers, rural communities and FARC rebels, writes W.T. Whitney Jr. But since the chemical was declared a 'probable carcinogen' Colombia has restricted aerial applications. The first step in a wider backlash against the toxic herbicide?
Monsanto Corporation's glyphosate, sold as 'Roundup', is the world's most widely used herbicide.
For the globalized capitalist economy it's a tool for wealth accumulation and, secondarily, for subjugating rural populations. In Colombia glyphosate is a weapon of war.
For 20 years the US and Colombian governments have used glyphosate in their so-called drug war to eradicate coca crops. Glyphosate now returns to the news. The occasion is ripe for a look at the herbicide's outsized role in the world economy and its dire effects everywhere.
Read more »