Paraguay is the fastest growing soybean producer in the world bringing untold riches to a very poor and corrupt country. The bean fields stretch far into the distance, consuming the horizon with waves of green leaves and a stink like dead animals from toxic agro-chemicals.
Soy Bean Gold Rush
Published April 16, 2008
Paraguay is the world's fastest growing producer of soybeans. But the boom has been bad for native peasants. They lived for years on forestland that belonged to no one -- logging and growing food for their families. About ten years ago, the government either gave away or illegally sold the land to political friends in the soybean business. The soy farmers moved in pushing the peasants out. It's a tense situation with peasants squatting next to the soy plantations and hoping the next presidential election will bring them some relief. Charles Lane reports.
Project
Food insecurity can result from climate change, urban development, population growth and oil price shifts that are interconnected and rarely confined by borders. It’s an issue of global importance,...
Soybeans, rows and rows of soybeans all around. In western Paraguay the fields that were once thick rain forests are now soybean plantations.
Gateways
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Charles Lane is a freelance radio and print reporter. He has worked for National Public Radio, Voice of America, Penthouse Magazine, and the Religion News Service. His fourth radio documentary...
