Mercosur on your plate? NOT for corporate governments!

"Do you realize what that means? The Agency liable for food safety shall issue an unprecedented decision that prevents consumers from choosing the milk they want to drink and further opens the way for Monsanto to prosecute all dairy sellers who will publically reject the milk “on hormones”. Do you not feel that everything is on the table in this country?", asked Prof. Samuel Epstein, author of the book “World According to Monsanto”, which the Institute of civilian Affairs published in 2009.

This quote isn't just a memory of an old US scandal. This is simply a description of the reality that technocrats, bankers and corporate presidents are trying to fund you here in Poland, through an agreement with Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay).

It's worth knowing

bovine growth hormone (rBGH/rBST) is legally and commonly utilized in Brazil and Argentina.

It was banned in the European Union for wellness and ethical reasons already in the 1990s. It's not a cosmetic difference — it's a civilization difference.

Why is that important? due to the fact that a bite of beef or a sip of milk you buy at the store present is very frequently tied to an invisible thread with an industrial model of plant and animal husbandry, where profit counts more than ‘human measure’ and safety.

The story of tight boundaries. No 100% warranty

Politicians and experts repeat in Polish media like a mantra: “There is nothing to be afraid of, EU borders are tight, and the services check everything.” It sounds reassuring, but the fact has nothing to do with it.

In fact, there is no, and never existed, any 100% warrant that a random border control strategy would prevent food counterfeiting. Especially erstwhile forgery involves manipulating documents, origins and production methods.

EU controls are based on paper in the vast majority. wellness certificates, declarations of conformity, certificates of origin – everything looks spotless until individual proves that their strategy of display was corrupt. And the labs? They are random, selective and targeted at circumstantial substances. ‘All’ is not tested. You don't survey all organization and you can't survey what's not precisely on the precedence list. With millions of tons of imported food is simply a statistic, not a guarantee.

I realize that stupid and lazy politicians are the easiest to break political capital, and businessmen make economical capital.

Those who are not stupid and lazy can verify what, under globalised trade, means "safe food".

An example may be Carcinogenic glyphosate in groats sold in Polish stores, pesticides is GMO NGT especially late promoted by the European Commission and biotech corporate lobbyists.

Do you truly believe in the integrity of controls in Brazilian meat giants, which have repeatedly been heroes of corruption scandals and falsification of sanitary documentation?

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Open veins of Latin America

History shows that the biggest food scandals were not detected at the borders, but after the fact – by police, investigative journalists or signalists.

The 2017 “Carne Fraca” (Weak Meat) scandal revealed systemic corruption in Brazilian establishments producing meat for export. Inspectors were bribed, falsified documents, and non-standard meat went to abroad markets, including European markets. The strategy worked for years before being exposed. Argentina regularly detects counterfeiting of food labels — from oil to preparations — with fictitious registration numbers and nonexistent origins. These products were sold due to the fact that on paper everything was correct. Only interior controls and decisions of the supervisory authorities there revealed the scale of fraud.

It is worth to be aware that this state of affairs is not the responsibility of average citizens of Brazil or Argentina – they themselves are the first victims of this system. This is the consequence of global corporations imposing on Latin American economies their business model.

"International division of labour is that any countries specialise in winning and others in losing. Our part of the planet we call Latin America present has specialized in losing already in distant times, erstwhile Renaissance Europeans threw themselves across the sea to sink their teeth into her throat," says Eduardo Galeano in "Open veins of Latin America".

The past of 1 War: From MAI to Mercosur

For many Mercosur is new. For me it's another episode of the same show "Games of Thrones".

I remember, in the mid-1990s, on a radio broadcast “Are you aware?” I warned against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). It was a secret “corporate constitution” that was able to halt thanks to bottom-up social resistance. Then the greedy rich changed their tactics. Future contracts TTIP (from USA) and CETA (with Canada)I protested in the Sejm and in the streets.

The talks on the EU agreement with Mercosur began in 1999. Over these 27 years negotiations have been repeatedly frozen and resumed. present they were pressed with a knee, due to the fact that the German manufacture desperately needs it – mainly motor giants (Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes) and chemical-pharmaceutical.

It is no coincidence that after the German Bayer company took over American Monsanto, lobbying for Mercosur became so aggressive.

How Corporations compose the Law

What is happening around the Mercosur Agreement is neither an accident nor a “natural course of things”. It's another chapter of class warfare. This is simply a recurring pattern, which we see all time a class of rich people pushes out mutually beneficial and unfavourable solutions for citizens.

"Various social changes, which we frequently associate with the spontaneous consequences of globalisation, are de facto driven mostly by the intention of circumstantial entities to prosecute their own group interests",

notes Joanna Szlachta-Jarmużek in his book "Instrumentarium of Global Rulement".

First you set the subject. Business experts (e.g. scientists from the SGH or journalists from the weekly “Politics”) repeat in the media that “there is simply a request to remove barriers”, “open markets” and “make trade easier”. It sounds innocent, but the point is to accept their language and their way of thinking.

Then you lower your standards. In the name of ‘harmonisation’, rules that defend consumers, farmers or the environment are removed. What is safety for us is “cost”.

Then the facts are created. The negotiations last for years, in the silence of the cabinets. And erstwhile the text of the agreement is yet presented, it turns out that the most crucial decisions were made long ago — without the participation of the public.

At the end of the day there are mechanisms that take control of countries. Disputes between companies and states go not to courts but to private arbitration tribunals. In practice, this means that a corp can sue the state if it considers that the law protecting citizens "destroys its business".

This pattern has been working for years. Mercosur is just his latest installment.

Who do you believe?

The Mercosur-EU Agreement was signed on 17 January 2026 in Asunción (Paraguay) after approval by most EU countries (21 for, Poland, France, Austria, Hungary, Ireland against). It is now waiting for ratification by the European Parliament and the government of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay), which could hold entry into force by more than a year.

The Polish government opposes the agreement in its current form. Poland is considering a complaint to the TEU. The Minister of Agriculture and agrarian Development, Stefan Krajewski, made it clear: “We do not agree to the EU-Mercosur agreement as it stands. This is simply a threat to food safety and the interests of Polish farmers. We must fight for equal rules of play for all."

How do you read the intentions of a government that in 1 breath opposes the Mercosur deal and is besides behind GMO NGT on your plate?

photo of Peter Skubish

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Tracks into the rabbit hole:

1. Robin Marie-Monique, “The planet According to Monsanto. Towards a genetic modification of the world”, Institute of civilian Affairs, Citizens' Association, Łódź 2009.

Facts, statements, documents. An investigation revealing the past of a corporate monster. Proof of how patents, lobbying and chemistry can take control of the global food chain and throw farmers on their knees. due to the fact that “who controls seeds controls food supply, and so besides people...”

2. Galeano Eduardo, “Open Lives of Latin America”, Poznań Publishing House, Poznań 1983.

A brutal and painful section of the corpse of the continent, which has for centuries been torn apart by abroad empires and corporations. It is mandatory to realize that poorness of the South is the foundation of the wealth of the North. And the time referred to by dull or clever experts as “cold war” was for another countries to be “hot war”.

3. The Noble-Jarmużek Joanna, “Instrumentarium of Global Rulement. On subject aspects of globalisation”, Wydawnictwo Profit i S-ka, Poznań 2011.

No more illusions about democracy. A ruthless X-ray of the black box of globalisation where your vote in the election doesn't matter. The author describes how national states become only atrapes, and real power falls into the hands of anonymous technocrats, bankers and corporate presidents.

4. Robin Marie-Monique, “The planet According to Monsanto” (documentary film), ARTE France, Paris 2008.

A painting worth a 1000 words. A three-year investigation on 4 continents. A paper that has shaken public opinion, showing the mechanisms of manipulation, corruption and political force that Monsanto imposes on the planet GMOs, herbicides and growth hormones. image of a corp that wants to be the “owner” of your plate.

5. Robin Marie-Monique, "Roundup before court" (documentary film), ARTE France, Paris 2017.

The paper reconstructs the symbolic Citizen Court in The Hague, before which Monsanto and glyphosate are posed not by governments but by victims of cancer, independent scientists and lawyers. The movie shows how uncomfortable studies have been hidden for decades, manipulated by regulations and the institution's favour was purchased.

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