Food & Water Watch works with organizations in Latin America to promote a healthy food system and safe, affordable water for all.

Latin America is the arena for some of the most dramatic struggles over who will control our food and water supply.  Because of the enormous wealth of biodiversity, forests, agricultural land, and water, corporations from all over the world have come to the region hoping to cash in with projects in the food, fisheries, agriculture and water sectors. Brazil, in particular, has become a major producer of raw materials for animal feed (soybeans) and biofuels (sugarcane and soybean oil) for export to countries in the North.

Latin America is already a top exporter of many agricultural products including soybeans, sugarcane and beef and poultry.  But the benefits of this growing export sector do not reach small farmers and indigenous peoples, or the majority of the population, many of whom are undernourished. Transnational agribusiness and retailing corporations such as US-based Monsanto, Dupont, ADM, Cargill, Bunge and WalMart, plus European corporations such as Bayer and Syngenta are reaping the biggest share of those profits, followed by big local landowners who are part of the socio-political and economical elite.

But Latin America is also rich in social movements that are fighting back against thee abuses of their land and water! Landless peasants, small-scale family farmers and indigenous campesino farmers and communities are resisting the models of export-driven agriculture and corporate-controlled water.

 Food & Water Watch Latin America works with peasant and small-scale farmers’ organizations, environmental groups and water activists, farm worker trade unions, women, youth, and student groups, and indigenous peoples’ organizations to push back the assault of corporate agriculture and agribusiness and to promote food and water sovereignty for healthy food systems and safe, affordable water for all.

Water Privatization Denies Water to Millions in Latin America

In the 1990s, multinational corporations rode through Latin American on a privatization wave. Throughout the continent, water utilities were privatized in most large Latin American cities such as Buenos Aires, Argentina; La Paz, Bolivia; and Guayaquil, Ecuador; where corporations such as Suez, Veolia, and Thames Water saw profit opportunities. The resulting mismanagement and injustices sparked strong opposition by the people, new reforms, and new political leaders elected on a promise of reform and a stop to the privatization frenzy.

Today, privatization has become a word seldom used. However, new words such as decentralization or involvement of local entrepreneurs can mean the same thing: public funds  diverted into corporate pockets.  Still, more than 49 million people in Latin America –– a staggering 10 percent of the population –– live without access to improved water sources.

Food & Water Watch provides support through the citizens organization network Red VIDA – Vigilancua Interamericana para la Defensa y el Derecho al Agua (The Inter-American Network for the Defense and Right to Water).

Brazil’s Ethanol Sector is Cause for Environmental, Labor and Human Rights Concerns

Brazil is often held up as a model for ethanol production. With an aggressive program that dates back to the 1970s, ethanol has now replaced 40 percent of Brazil’s total fuels used by nondiesel powered vehicles. Brazil’s ethanol sector, however, is tainted by numerous environmental and human rights violations. Learn more in our report, The Rush to Ethanol: Not all BioFuels are Equal.

Bechtel Exposed: Profits Off Dirty Water in Ecuador 

Starting this weekend, Cesar Cardenas Ramirez and Augusto Parada Campos, of the Observatorio Cuidadano de Servicios Publicos (Citizen's Observatory for Public Services), will be traveling around the United States to tell the story of the U.S.–based corporation Bechtel’s mismanagement of the municipal water of Guayaquil, Ecuador. They will be joined by Emily Joyner, the author of Murky Waters: A Critical and Purposeful Look at Water and Sanitation Services in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Find out more about attending the event here.

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Defend the Global Commons is our international activist magazine that provides news updates from water struggles from around the world and communities defending the right to water. Available in English and Spanish.