AGRO-INDUSTRY

The Bolivian government and private enterprises boast about the production of soy beans in tropical areas and hope to expand them, yet this soy production has provoked the loss of very extensive areas of tropical forests. The pressure of international bodies such as the World Bank and the Inter American Bank for Bolivia to increase its exports to pay its foreign debt blinds them to the permanent destruction of our tropical forests and to the chain of destruction this provokes for the world.

Currently there are plans to develop production of rice for export in tropical forests as well. Translational companys have managed to introduce genetically engineered soy seeds to Bolivia despite Bolivia’s efforts to keep them out. These could cause chaos in the rainforest.

Agro industry has a policy of mechanization, the use of chemicals, the production of a limited number of products in a huge scale, products whose production and distribution it monopolizes.

This policy is in direct conflict with the traditions of our country, traditions which strive towards the development of new species (for example our indigenous peoples developed around four hundred varieties of potatoes), of a very varied production in a variety of ecosystems, of a more intense use of labor, adapting oneself in this way to the needs of the land and generating more employment, and of an organic form of agriculture. The traditional way of life provides a much healthier life style from all points of view.