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Soybeans and pesticides suffocate traditional communities in the Amazon
Research documents respiratory and nutritional issues among Indigenous and quilombola communities caused by glyphosate use on illegally occupied lands in the Lower Tapajós
Small forest fragments mask the scale of the devastation caused by soybean plantations in the Lower Tapajós – Photo: Bruno Kelly
Soybean plantations, pesticides, and land grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon: that is the landscape. Across this vast territory, there is a myth that the forest region is empty, despite traditional peoples striving to preserve their ways of life. Over 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, Fabio Zuker, a researcher at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences (FFLCH) at USP, investigated “expulsion by suffocation” in the Lower Tapajós driven by glyphosate use on soybean plantations established on illegally occupied lands. The cases illustrate respiratory, nutritional, and economic hardships as mechanisms to push Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and riverside populations off their lands.
The article Expulsion by suffocation: Soybean plantations, toxicity, and land grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon was published in the journal Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.
“Suffocation happens both literally and metaphorically. Literally, people cannot breathe because of the intense application of pesticides. They lock themselves inside their homes, reporting difficulty breathing”, explained Zuker. Metaphorically, it refers to the suppression of these communities’ capacity to sustain their production, their way of life, to remain tied to that territory, and to maintain relationships with other species on which they depend to live. In the study, the researcher shows how a colonial-military imaginary of emptiness is produced through slow chemical harm.
“The idea is that emptiness in the Amazon is produced, not natural. It was created over the course of history, from the March to the West under the Vargas government to the National Integration Plan during the military dictatorship”, he noted.
Fabio Zuker – Photo: Courtesy of Fabio Zuker
In this anthropological work, the researcher sought to give a reflective and critical treatment to the process of expulsion by suffocation. For that reason, he approached the “farce” of emptiness as a category that helps explain the process of landscape-making, in which small patches of forest and communities conceal the magnitude of environmental devastation.
“Emptiness is produced by the very [violent] activities that occupy it, such as pesticide use. It is an intentional production of this emptied space,” said Zuker.
Violence and resistance
In the context of the research, the expansion of agribusiness is framed as a form of chemically induced death through pesticide use in the Lower Tapajós. In conversations with community leaders, the researcher also observed what he describes as a forest that functions as a façade. “Small stretches of forest along the roadside. They are the bubbles left here and there”, noted Zuker.
In a dialogue with Beto, a resident and rural worker in the region, the researcher refers to these bubbles as the “farce of communities”. “There are just a few little houses there, by the roadside. And nothing else. There used to be a large community here. Just a few trees there. Behind it, it’s all soy”, recounted the resident.
The “illusion” described is created by the remaining communities and forest fragments which, from the roadside, conceal the vast soy fields that dominate the landscape. However, the researcher highlighted resistance processes aimed at disrupting this entire “emptiness” logic.
“There is a major issue in the social sciences, which is focusing exclusively on a narrative of violence, of destruction, a narrative of erasure. What is at stake is a tension, a force that pushes toward violence, erasure, and the suffocation process. On the other hand, there is constant resistance by Indigenous, quilombola, and riverside collectives that push back against this expulsion”, he continued. He argued that this constitutes a form of counter-plantation, as these groups oppose the incorporation of their territories into a violent logic embedded in the global grain and plant-protein production system.
There are multiple beings — non-human and human — defending the territory so that other forms of life may multiply there – Photo: Bruno Kelly
Together with the Tupinambá of the Lower Tapajós, the research recovered the idea of a living territory in opposition to emptiness. It is a place where multiple beings coexist: non-human beings play a fundamental role in defending the territory and, alongside humans, defend its integrity so that other forms of life can flourish there. “All these enchanted beings, these other beings that make up this territory in multiple forms of life, do not disappear. They have the possibility of reappearing and bringing back this lexicon. A process of reoccupations, of mobilizations against the advance of agribusiness,” explained the researcher.
Solutions
The effort to document this phenomenon in the Amazon region draws on different fields of knowledge that seek to demonstrate the scale of harms caused by pesticides. “Alongside social science analyses, we can also demonstrate – through narratives, life histories, and cases – a pattern of local violence”, explained Zuker. This complementarity is necessary because of the difficulty of producing knowledge about the effects of an invisible substance that acts over the long term.
“Besides the difficulty of tracing outcomes over an extended period, [research on this topic] is also suppressed because of powerful people with significant interests and deep influence in local politics,” he warned. Even so, he argued that human development indicators for Amazonian communities must be pursued with the forest alive and standing. “Nothing indicates that deforestation is an important path to improving these people’s lives”, he stated. On the contrary, according to his research, the forest and ecosystems are fundamental to these populations.
Regarding pesticide use, Zuker advocated better regulatory and enforcement practices to prevent the logic of expulsion. “A fundamental element is that pesticides that are prohibited in their countries of origin should not be marketed in Brazil”, he noted. However, he stressed the importance of dialogue among different sectors to promote respect for ecological existence and for local knowledge in these and other regions threatened by monoculture and mining.
The article Expulsion by suffocation: Soybean plantations, toxicity, and land grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon is available here.
For more information: fabiozuker@gmail.com, with Fabio Zuker
*Intern under the supervision of Tabita Said
**Intern under the supervision of Moisés Dorado
English version: Nexus Traduções, edited by Denis Pacheco
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A reprodução de matérias e fotografias é livre mediante a citação do Jornal da USP e do autor. No caso dos arquivos de áudio, deverão constar dos créditos a Rádio USP e, em sendo explicitados, os autores. Para uso de arquivos de vídeo, esses créditos deverão mencionar a TV USP e, caso estejam explicitados, os autores. Fotos devem ser creditadas como USP Imagens e o nome do fotógrafo.
A reprodução de matérias e fotografias é livre mediante a citação do Jornal da USP e do autor. No caso dos arquivos de áudio, deverão constar dos créditos a Rádio USP e, em sendo explicitados, os autores. Para uso de arquivos de vídeo, esses créditos deverão mencionar a TV USP e, caso estejam explicitados, os autores. Fotos devem ser creditadas como USP Imagens e o nome do fotógrafo.