Inside Paraguay’s War Over Soy Plantations

3 minute read

A couple of generations ago, eastern Paraguay was covered by lush verdant forest and rolling grasslands. Now its fields shimmer with a golden sea of soy that stretches over more than eight million acres of the small, landlocked South American country. Locals call it oro verde or “green gold”: the crop brings in 12% of GDP and Paraguay is now the world’s fourth-largest exporter of soy.

That golden harvest comes with a high cost: rampant deforestation, loss of biodiversity, intensive land use and even social unrest. More than half the agricultural land in Paraguay is now used for growing soy and current forecasts predict a 9% increase in soybean area in the next year.

Those plantations are not just having environmental repercussions, but also social ones. The mechanized approach on soy farms mean that just one worker is needed per 1,100 acres, transforming the traditional small-scale structure of Paraguay’s rural communities. As a result, the humble soybean is fomenting social unrest, as poverty-stricken farmers try to battle the government and powerful landed elite. (Paraguay has the most unequal land distribution in the world: 85.5% of land is owned by 2.6% of the population.)

Jordi Ruiz Cirera began documenting Paraguay’s landscape in 2013, investigating the impact of the mass soy monoculture on rural communities. He lived for some time with peasants under threat of eviction. Around 9,000 families a year migrate to cities from the countryside because of the rapid growth of soy plantations. Locals say their rivers are contaminated by agrochemicals and complain of health problems that they believe are linked to the uncontrolled use of pesticides to grow genetically-modified soybeans.

That soy rarely ends up in lattes, tofu or other foods directly consumed by humans. Cheap and high in protein, soy is mostly processed into animal feed. In Paraguay, the explosion in global demand for cheap meat has not only led to slash-and-burn deforestation to make room for cattle ranches, but also resulted in clearing vast areas of land to grow the high-protein soy that will feed livestock. About 96% of the soybeans cultivated in Paraguay are exported to be used in feed – largely in the European Union. They are also increasingly used in biodiesel production.

While in Paraguay, Ruiz Cirera also witnessed the positive economic situation that agribusinesses were enjoying in the country. He visited factories and silos, and met the owners and workers on large-estate populations. Many landowners, he says, feel the peasants are against the country’s best economic interests.

The farmers and the landowners lived side-by-side in two different worlds, Ruiz Cirera adds. “What I saw was a clash between two models and ways of living: a self-sufficient and quite traditional economy that wanted to stay the same as always had been, and a market economy that was seeing endless possibilities due to the country’s climate and location,” he says. “They are really difficult to reconcile.”

Jordi Ruiz Cirera is a documentary photographer from Barcelona, currently based in London. Follow him on Twitter @jordiruizc.

Naina Bajekal is a reporter for TIME based in London. Follow her on Twitter @naina_bajekal.

Mikko Takkunen, who edited this photo essay, is the International Photo Editor at TIME.com. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism.

United soya republic Paraguay
A peasant shoots a firecracker to alert people that a fumigation is happening near the community. In such situations, peasants occupy the soy field in order to stop the fumigation, which they believe to be harmful to the community's health and the environment. Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
María Lina Estorales (bottom right) sobs as she explains how she and 21 other families of the small community of Guayaqui Cuá were evicted and their properties burned two days earlier. She said security men from the nearby cattle ranch together with local police officers evicted them without notice on behalf of the large-estate owner. Disputes over land ownership are a major issue in Paraguay.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
A burned bed is one of the few things left behind by the community of Guayaqui Cuá after its eviction two days earlier. Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
Cows at Estancia Santa Amalia, a large estate soya plantation and cattle-ranch farm. Since 2008 an indigenous group has illegally occupied part of the plantation, arguing that they had historical ownership of the lands before being expelled years before when the estancia was created. In 2010, the German land-owner was allegedly attacked by the indigenous people, and they were expelled by the police. However in 2014 they returned and are currently embroiled in an ongoing land ownership conflict with the large-estate owner.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
Michael Kolbeck, a large-estate soy producer speaks with his brother-in-law. Kolbeck arrived in Paraguay from Germany in 1983 when his father sold his lands back home for a larger extension in Paraguay which was “like the American West, a land of opportunities”. He now works with genetically modified soy, saying the harvest is easier since no weeds grow. “This is the best soil in South America," he says. "Too valuable to waste it in cattle-ranching”.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
A silo full of corn at Puerto Gical, one of the main private ports on the Paraguay River. Thanks to soy, cereals and meat exports, Paraguay is one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America, reaching a 13% GDP growth in 2013, one of the world's biggest.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
Members of the Club Centenario, the most exclusive club in Asunción, play golf during their weekly appointment. According to one of the workers, a vast majority of members are part of the country’s agribusiness elite.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
The workers at Kolbeck's plantation celebrate one of their birthdays and first communion with a big barbecue in Iruña. The plantation is run by just seven workers, all of Brazilian origin, who live with their families together inside the plantation.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
A group of teenagers swim in the river near the Tava Jopoy settlement. Although locals claim it's severely polluted, and few fishes remain, they still enjoy their time by the river.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
Perla da Silva, 26 and her husband José Domingo, 28, clean the small mausoleum where their sons are buried. She says shortly after the neighboring soy field began fumigating their crops, she started to feel sick and suffered a miscarriage, eight months into her pregnancy. A year later, she got pregnant again but their newborn son started to have heart problems at the age of 4 months and died shortly after. She believes the events are linked to her exposure to pesticides while pregnant. Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
Magdalena Prete, 30, with her daughter Andrea Natalia, who was born without an arm. Prete believes this was due to exposure to pesticides while she was pregnant. The family lives in a highly impoverished area surrounded by soy fields. According to some doctors the number of congenital malformations has increased dramatically in the areas where soy is planted on a mass scale.Jordi Ruiz Cirera
United soya republic Paraguay
Maximo Ruiz Diaz, 55, is one of the few inhabitants remaining in this area of Minga Pora. He says there used to be 72 families on this street, while now only six remain. The combination of economic pressure to sell their lands, the pesticides pollution, and the reduction of services in the area, have left the area almost uninhabited.Jordi Ruiz Cirera

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Write to Naina Bajekal at naina.bajekal@time.com