2007-05-18 | permalink

Allied with Brazilian agribusiness, Syngenta resists governor’s decree to expropriate site

March 14 marked the one-year anniversary of the Via Campesina’s non-violent occupation of Syngenta Seeds’ experimental test site in Brazil. Last year 600 members of the Via Campesina occupied the 123-hectare site in Santa Tereza do Oeste, in the state of Paraná, after it was discovered that Syngenta had illegally planted 12 hectares of genetically modified soybeans at the site. Syngenta’s plantation was located within the protective boundary zone of the Iguaçu National Park (the boundary distance has since been modified), which was declared Patrimony of Humanity by the United Nations in 1986. The occupation has become one the most powerful symbols in the world of civil society’s resistance to agribusiness, as it continues to paralyze all of Syngenta’s activities at the site, costing the corporation tens of millions of dollars. It also spurred Paraná state Governor Roberto Requião to sign a decree on November 9, 2006 to expropriate the site for the public interest. Yet despite Requião’s decree, the magnitude of Syngenta’s environmental crime, and continuous pressure from social movements and civil society around the world, the realization of the expropriation of the site from Syngenta is threatened due to the immense power of agribusiness in Brazilian politics.

• Americas Program, International Relations Center, USA: Allied with Brazilian agribusiness, Syngenta resists governor’s decree to expropriate site