Thousands of protesters in Argentina took to the streets of Buenos Aires last Friday to protest against agrochemical giant Monsanto and the construction of a new corn processing plant in the rural town of Malvinas Argentinas close to Córdoba. Protesters marched in support of an activists’ camp which is blocking the property following news that an eviction notice was issued by the authorities on December 30. Protests also took place in other major cities across Argentina. Demonstrators marched with drums or held banners reading “Monsanto get out” or “Stop pesticide spraying”. They also wore gas masks to symbolise the dangers people are suffering from the widespread use of pesticides. According to activists, the province of Cordoba where Monsanto wants to build the world’s biggest maize seed treatment plant for genetically modified seeds is suffering an environmental emergency. Since 2013, they have maintained a blockade of the construction site preventing the entry of building material and fuel. In 2014, a provincial court ruled that the municipal ordinance authorising construction of the plant was unconstitutional. It ordered a halt to construction works and banned the Malvinas Argentinas municipality from allowing the construction until an environmental impact assessment and a public hearing were carried out. The recent eviction notice to remove the protesters, stating that Monsanto must have “free passage” to the property, was temporarily suspended on January 7. “Monsanto has for a long time been attempting to install itself in areas illegally, where court decisions have previously blocked the development plan, and has failed with all its political pressure to win a legal method to install its project," environmental lawyer Enrique Viale told RT. The movement against the corn processing plant is part of a larger protest against the cultivation of genetically modified crops in Argentina and the use of Monsanto’s agrochemicals. Argentina is the world’s largest soybean producer. Genetically modified soybeans are currently grown on more than 20 million hectares, mostly for export to China and Europe. In 2012, 335 million litres of pesticides were sprayed on Argentinean fields, almost nine times as much as in 1990. Glyphosate, a herbicide marketed by Monsanto under the trade name Roundup, is now the most widely used agrochemical in Argentina. Spraying is often carried out from the air on land near residential areas, causing problems of drift and health problems. In farming communities, cancer rates are often two to four times higher than the national average and people are suffering from respiratory and skin diseases. Children are frequently born with birth defects and malformations. But the widespread pesticide use is not only causing health concerns: "Biodiversity is affected negatively when 15 million inhabitants of the country use hundreds of millions of litres of glyphosate,” said Luis Zamora, a former candidate for Buenos Aires Mayor, who attended the protest march. (ab)