A 2016 film titled ‘Genetically Modified Children’ exposed how Philip Morris and Monsanto have exploited impoverished farmers since 1966 when the Argentinian government authorised the use of genetically modified (“GM”) crops to withstand Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. As a result, an increasing number of children are being born with severe birth defects and deformities in Argentina.
Low-income tobacco farmers face skyrocketing cancer rates with more devastating repercussions affecting their children: severe physical deformities and mental disabilities. Choosing between poverty or poison, Latin American growers have no choice but to use harmful chemicals such as glyphosate, in Monsanto’s Roundup, and Bayer’s Confidor, if they want to certify and sell their crops to Big Tobacco.
As patent and regulatory laws continue to favour the profits of Monsanto and chemical companies, the tobacco makes its way into the hands and mouths of consumers worldwide in Philip Morris tobacco products, while the poisons used to harvest the crops contaminate the farmers’ blood and are modifying the human genome, creating genetically modified children.
The film interviews Dr. Hugo Gomez Demaio and Dr. Mario Barrera, who are dedicated to highlighting and treating the link between agrochemicals and birth defects. It features anti-agrochemical activist Sofia Gatica, who is renowned for her work in tracking abnormal rates of cancer, kidney disease and other ailments linked to aerial spraying of glyphosate on GM soy crops.
