Public Participation in Science and Technology and Social Conflict: The Case of Aerial Spraying with Glyphosate in the Fight Against Drugs in Colombia

Ecologies of drug war and more-than-human health: The case of a chemical at war with a plant

“…In the period 2006-2011, an estimated USD$1.2 billion a year, equivalent to more than 1% of the gross domestic product of Colombia, was spent fumigating the coca plant (Mejía and Restrepo, 2013). Estimates suggest that between 2000 and 2015, the United States invested USD$9.6 million in Plan Colombia, with the war on the coca plant a prime beneficiary of foreign aid (Lozano, 2018).…”

“…Glyphosate is no simple matter-of-fact in relation to its effects on human health but is a matter of controversy in a science war extending over many years (Lyons, 2018;Lozano, 2018). Successive Colombian and US governments have defended drug eradication through crop spraying by maintaining that glyphosate kills illicit crops, and "poses no scientifically proven harm to other bodies and ecologies" (Lyons, 2018: 415).…”

“…They were being sprayed with a chemical that was considered dangerous for people, animals and the environment." (El Tiempo, 1995, quoted in Lozano, 2018 Colombian civil society have also responded by staging demonstrations, including protests and strikes (Lozano, 2018), and by producing counter evidence, including through collating the thousands of complaints of ill health (skin, respiratory, digestive and eye conditions) linked to glyphosate reported to the Colombian government and seemingly unnoticed by CICAD (Rincón-Ruiz and Kallis, 2013;Transnational Institute, 2005). Lyons (2018) documents how farmers filed quejas -compensation claims -for having been 'wrongfully fumigated', having had their licit crops destroyed, land damaged, and livelihoods harmed, but almost always to no avail.…”