The soy mirage
The limits of corporate social responsibility – the case of the company Desarrollo Agrícola del Paraguay
Author: Arantxa Guereña
Soybean production in Paraguay now takes up 80 per cent of cultivated land, displacing agricultural production by family farmers and indigenous populations and deepening inequality in access to land.
Among the agribusiness companies involved in soy monoculture in Paraguay, the company Desarrollo Agrícola del Paraguay sought to distinguish its activity in the sector by adopting a policy of social and environmental responsibility and investing in community-based initiatives. The results are analyzed in this report.
It finds that the company’s efforts have not compensated for the negative impacts of a model of production that:
- increases the concentration of land and wealth;
- contaminates the environment;
- harms people’s health;
- competes for limited resources
- and puts at risk the traditional livelihoods of small-scale farmers and indigenous communities.