Protests against Chinese-funded hog farms in Chaco province
For indigenous groups, environmentalists and small local producers, the project is illegal. Mega farms are expected to produce 900,000 tonnes of meat over four years for Chinese domestic consumption, raising fears about its social and environmental impact. Job prospects for Argentines are poor.
Buenos Aires (AsiaNews) – Social organisations and representatives of indigenous communities in northern Argentina have slammed the government of President Alberto Fernández for pushing a project to create 20 largescale hog farms in partnership with Chinese capital and businesses without respecting existing legislation.
In recent weeks, several roadblocks were set up in Chaco province on the highway leading to Impenetrable, one of the areas chosen for Chinese hog farming.
Local residents, mostly indigenous Qom (Toba) communities entitled to use the land where the farms are supposed to be built, have tried to prevent the passage of Chinese business people whose arrival had been unofficially announced to them by the local authorities, but which ultimately did not happen.
Indigenous residents say that they were not consulted, as required by international treaties on activities that might affect their way of life and the ecosystems in which they live and work.
“They want to go through Chaco to reach other provinces,” said a resident. The project, announced by the national government last year, was put on hold after different social groups demanded at least one environmental impact study.
The company linked to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical corporation Biogenesis Bagó officially reported in January 2020 the proposed Chinese investments of nearly US$ 27 billion to raise millions of pigs over four years.
In July 2020, the Argentine Foreign Ministry announced a strategic partnership with then Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, confirming the plan to produce nine million tonnes of meat, ten times more than current production. Pork is China’s most consumed meat, but an outbreak of African swine fever reduced domestic production.
Despite this, protests continued in the streets and on social media asking for more information and warning about the economic implications and pandemic potential of such activities. In December 2020, the Argentine Vegan Union presented the signatures of 528,000 Argentine citizens against the project.
The official strategy was then to delegate to the provinces the power to agree with the Chinese. Some environmentalists are currently vetting the legitimacy of such action.
Chaco province followed this with its own initiative. Its governor, Jorge Capitanich, who is very close to Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese-Argentine company Feng Tian Food to open three big hog farms for export.
“The company has a Chinese name, but it includes Argentine friends of the governor and is located in the province of Buenos Aires,” Nora Gimenez, a former administrative judge and criminal law professor, told AsiaNews.
Gimenez is a member of Conciencia Solidaria, an organisation that launched three legal cases in Chaco courts. One involves a request for information, while the other two call for the prevention of damages and information about permits that would allow the land next to the hog farms be stripped to grow soybeans or maize to feed to the pigs.
There was talk in that province of an initial investment of US$ 129 million and the creation of 1,080 jobs. “They say that but the reality is that the work won’t go to locals. They're coming with the armed teams. This was the case with the uranium processor they installed in Formosa and so it was in Chile,” Giménez explained. The reference to Chile concerns a hog farm in Freirina, which closed after years of complaints and protests about its harmful environmental, health, social and economic effects.
Gimenez also reported that the Chaco government is building roads, bridges and other infrastructures to optimise access to the areas for the mega hog farms. Illegal largescale clearings of the native forest have been reported in the same area.
For biologist and researcher Guillermo Folguera, civil society groups in Argentina are moving proactively, and that is good, because “once the company is installed and the project is started, everything becomes harder. We are trying to move away from the false dichotomy: environmentalism-productivism. We are not saying that we must not produce but that we must see the way in which we produce.”
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