Debate about the environmental consequences of monocrop agriculture’s relentless expansion here has intensified amid severe flooding in various regions recently, including on prized Humid Pampas farmland in the eastern portion of central Argentina. The agricultural heart of the country and one of the world’s most fertile plains, the Humid Pampas have suffered an estimated US$1.7 billion in flood damage to crop-farming and ranching operations, according to the Rural Society, the country’s oldest agricultural producers association. Some 5.5 million hectares (13.6 million acres) were flooded in the region, leaving producers in a “desperate” situation, said a report issued in August by another leading farmers’ group, the Confederation of Rural Associations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa (Carbap). The rains continued in September, and some farming organizations said they expected flooding to affect more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) in the Humid Pampas. Experts agree that greater-than... [Log in to read more]