In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the expansion of soy is not only transforming landscapes but also suffocating the communities that inhabit them. The intensive use of herbicides in soybean plantations— particularly glyphosate — has deeply disrupted the dynamics that sustain life in Amazonian communities and their relationship with the land.
These findings come from a recent ethnographic study based on long-term immersion in everyday life and in-depth interviews with residents of the Lower Tapajós, in Pará. The results were published last September in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.
Through the community’s critical narratives, it was possible to expose how respiratory impacts and experiences of suffocation among this population lead to a slow and prolonged process of expulsion. This mechanism acts simultaneously on bodies, ecosystems, and the very possibility of remaining in their territories.
