THE WICHI 

VICTIMS OF THE SOY PLANTATIONS 

In Argentina, the Gran Chaco contains South America’s second-largest forest, behind only the Amazon rainforest. The north of Argentina is home to native people, the Wichi, and a big part (60%) of what is left of the Gran Chaco. In 1996 the government authorised the introduction of genetically modified soybean destroying  a quarter of its forest and the natural environment of its native people. 

20 years of deforestation in Argentina

In more than 20 years of deforestation, the world of 40 000 Wichis and other native minorities have completely changed. The government sold their lands to soy companies and relocated them in different areas. The Wichi are people of the forest, they used to live in harmony with their environment, as hunter-gatherers, they have historically depended on the forest for food, medicine, or wood to build their houses, and were completely self sufficient. They used the plants for medicine or to make crafts. But now the animals are gone, the plants, the rivers disappeared. Slowly the Wichis lost their freedom by depending on social help from the government. They live now in a difficult condition between two worlds. The government give them a plastic bag  monthly with food, introducing new type of products, changing their way to cook especially with oil. The health conditions completely changed in 20 years with a lot of heart diseases, cholesterol and cancer. But one of the main  causes is the chemicals and pesticides used and dropped by planes on the the soy plantation and spreading all over the communities. 

Now some of the Wichi try to find a job in the nearest city but the discrimination of natives  is strong amongst argentinians. The cultural gap between them is huge and the need of the Wichi make them very vulnerable. So the only activities left are the craft making by the women, but for days of work they sale it in town for nothing. Some older Wichi still try to hunt or find plants  but they have to cross illegal lands that used to be a forest. If the children want to go to school they must walk several kilometers crossing private fields though if the rain comes,  the teachers from the cities will not come because of impossible acces. 

Soy plantation is part of a larger scale, once harvested. The small creamy beans are crushed. The extracted oil is mainly used for fuel, while the remaining meal  (the protein) is used for animal feed. Only a small percentage is turned into human food products such as soy milk. Around 43m tonnes of soya bean meal, soya oil and soya bean a year floods out of Argentina into Russia, the Middle East, Australia and Asia, with the largest part going to Europe and Europe’s farms.

Argentina is Europe’s largest single supplier of soya bean meal, providing more than a third of total European soya meal imports, 9,8m tonnes out of a total 27.1m in 2016. Now Argentina relies on soya bean exportation. Combined, soya bean, soya meal and soya oil make up 31% of the country’s exports.

The future for the Wichi and the forest is now very uncertain as the chemicals have damaged the soil for replantation and the new generations of the Wichi are losing  most of their traditions including the language.