The soy mirage
The limits of corporate social responsibility: the case of the company Desarrollo Agrícola del Paraguay.
Monoculture production of soybeans in Paraguay has rapidly expanded to occupy 80 percent of cultivated lands, exacerbating the inequitable access to land and displacing agricultural production by family farmers and indigenous populations. The company Desarrollo Agrícola del Paraguay sought to differentiate its actions in the sector by adopting a policy of social and environmental responsibility and investing in community-based initiatives, the results of which are analyzed in this report. However, this company’s efforts do not compensate for the negative impacts created by 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.