From the so-called “Green Revolution”, the agricultural agenda implemented in the 60s by the US which started using chemicals in agriculture, these techniques have been becoming commonplace on farms throughout the world. Although it did achieve increased productivity in the beginning, we are now aware of the many serious damaging effects caused by the spreading of millions of tons of chemical substances throughout the planet every year. This is having a tremendous impact on climate change, with massive contamination in our oceans, rivers and aquifers and the growing loss of soil fertility being the most serious.

The Structural Adjustment Plans imposed in the 80s by the IMF and the World Bank brought international capital into strategic sectors such as agriculture, and the 1994 agreements of the World Trade Organization opened a process of liberalization in agriculture, which has now become a business like any other. This has promoted the technification of agriculture, and also its damaging effects.

Today, the large agro-industrial corporations invest part of their budgets to influencing agricultural legislation so they can increase their profits, many times through non-transparent or even illegal means.