Gaze at this Single Picture and You’ll Never Eat GMOs Again
Featured in a 300-plus photographic showcase in the annual exhibit of the Argentine Photojournalists Association (Argra) is an image of Lucas Techeira that is haunting. The child shows on his skin just how devastating the spraying of glyphosate on the world’s crops can be. I challenge you to visit this pictorial and not be concerned of pesticides on our food.
Though it is difficult to even know which of our foods contain GMOs since Monsanto and other biotech companies consistently block GMO labeling efforts, the sordid story presented in these pictures really ‘speaks’ to the issue in ways that the written word cannot.
A photography critic for the Financial Times, Jurist Francis Hodgson, says this of the showcase:
“It’s a horrific story of great importance to us all, very properly and very well told. The pictures are structured and built with harmonic proportions, an outer respect for the subject matter, and all of those old virtues about tones, and colors, and balance, absolutely nicely held.”
Aside from the artistic and technical acumen presented in these photographs, they show in the plain light of day what toxic chemicals are doing to our children.
The image of Lucas Techeira — a three-year old boy from Misiones with a skin disease reportedly caused by his mother being exposed to glyphosate during the pregnancy — won’t leave your mind after viewing it. It makes you ask yourself how we’ve allowed the corporations who spray these chemicals to get away with such clear torture of the human genome and spirit.
This photo was selected to be included in the exhibit from a total of 3000 submissions, not all of which were about a topic as controversial as the use of glyphosate on our crops.
The photograph submitted by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo head Estela Barnes de Carlotto hugging her grandson Guido Montoya Carlotto was chosen.
Read: Argentina Doctors Demand that Glyphosate be Banned
Techeira’s picture, included on the catalogue’s back cover, was taken by Página/12 photojournalist Pablo Piovano, who published a photo essay called The Human Cost of Agrotoxins after touring many of the provinces Argentina where these chemicals are regularly used in agriculture.
The declaration of the World Health Organization (WHO) that glyphosate is a ‘probable carcinogen’ has helped in making aware the biological warfare that biotech has unleashed on the planet, but we need more. The herbicide is currently used on more than 28 million hectares in Argentina, and similar levels can be found in other countries, including the US.
Something is seriously wrong with regulators and Congressmen and women that would allow the massive use of glyphosate to continue.
