THE MOMENT WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR?
Good afternoon, Last weekend your paper had an important front page about agrochemicals, not disimilar to [a previous story from] the Associated Press several years ago, which was featured on the frontpage of the Buenos Aires Herald.
The Carrasco Compass (http://carrascocompass.com) project was launched during the Kirchnerite administrations to solve the problem of agrochemical/ fitosa
nitario abuse, lack of controls. Back then, I noticed that probably like the group Macri has pulled together, as featured [recently in] Perfil, so did the Kirchnerite government wave a hand at the problem with the creation of a commission on agrochemicals, to which we – Carrasco Compass –reached out by email and phone calls. All to no avail.
The Kirchner-created commission only met once, maybe twice, and their website links were broken. A hope is the Macri administration does something to control agrochemicals, not just talk about it prior to the G20. In [a previous] note to him, sent December 2016, I clearly stated the solution to the agrochemical problem is government control. This is not controversial.
When I met with Franco Segesso of Greenpeace after the AP story came out, and discussed the need for controls, I was told Greenpeace would never support a model which was anything but green. With this reply from him I could see how unreasonable they were for people from the campo who relied on agrochemicals.
Likewise, when I communicated with Ernesto Ambrosetti of the Rural Society, or Federico Landgraf of Monsanto’s Casafe, etc…, I noticed a hesitancy toward creating a governmental solution. They seemed to not want to be bothered. (Not much has changed.)
Anyway, not long ago, I discovered I had a link to the OCDE in Paris, and had the same letter sent to them in Paris. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s office did reply, and I conducted a mini-hunger strike during this incarnation of activism.
As Peron is reported to have said, “..if you want to bury something, create a commission.” (I think Francis – aka Jorge Bergoglio – has been quoted similarly.) Let’s hope Macri’s serious.
The world is watching, and investors should be, too. Thanks,
Christopher Carpenter City