From Paraguay With Love

What Is This All About?

From Paraguay, With Love is a documentary that focuses on the environmental and humanitarian crisis happening in Paraguay due to "La Revolución Verde," also known as the "The Green Revolution," which is the rapid expansion of soy agri-farming in the Gran Chaco Forest, the second largest forest in South America after the Amazon. 

Soy is a highly profitable commodity which is exported across the world to feed the livestock we consume, such as chicken and beef.
We as consumers have become overly dependent on meat without regard to the consequences of agricultural farming, which is one of the top contributors to global warming. Recent studies suggest that unconscious consumerism is a large factor in this, meaning that people are subjected to advertisements and products without considering their own agency in the larger social, political, ecological, and environmental world around them.

Humanity's over-reliance on animals as a food source is unsustainable for the global ecosystem, but we believe that exposing the harms of mass-scale soy farming is an achievable step in the right direction to making a change.

In order for Soy to be grown, land needs to be cleared. Large and corrupt corporations such as Cargill and Monsanto are leading the Green Revolution and clearing land in the Gran Chaco to make space for soy agri-farming. The fires and machinery used to deforest farming areas have caused uncontrollable damage to the Gran Chaco, including the fires currently raging in the Amazon. This is currently one of the largest threats to our Planet and survival as a species.

The higher demand there is for meat, the larger the demand for soy farming and forest clearing, which also leads to the displacement of indigenous tribes that call the forests their home. In the last 10 years up to 900,000 rural families were displaced from their lands to make way for the soy agribusiness. Corrupt and greedy corporations and authorities selfishly disregard the well-being of the local people and ecosystem for their profit, and nobody is trying to stop them (partially because of the lack of attention this situation is getting).

We hope that with this documentary we can raise awareness about the larger effects of unconscious consumerism on people and ecosystems that we rely on for survival. These forests provide about 20% of the world's oxygen, so their survival is vital for our own existence. 
We are asking for your contribution so that we can A, help inform people about the larger gravity of their daily consumption choices and B, take a stand against the corrupt greed that is causing this devastation. In order for them to be stopped we must educate the public on what is is they are doing. Once people can not only see but also feel the butterfly effects created due to so many unmindful day-to-day choices then this change of heart might be what it takes to truly make a chance in how we behave and operate within our societies, and this is what will ultimately shake up the very industries that are causing this damage. 

People rarely stop and think about the effects of such a massive operation, and therefore underestimate the role a consumerist culture plays in enabling an industry like this in the first place. The sad truth of the matter is that “The Green Revolution" wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for unconscious consumers and their reliance on meat. And if the demand for Soy didn’t exist then the 2nd most important forest in South America wouldn’t be the target of extensive agro-farming that is now causing an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe in this country, as well as the surrounding lands.

To conclude our call to action I want to add one more layer to this, and that is how important it is to always be in tune with our divine Mother Earth. If it weren’t for our divine mother we wouldn’t have any of things we see and use around us everyday. For too long now we have gone on teasing, tormenting, and abusing the very things that keeps us alive. We take so much for granted and that is why Mother Earth is sorely unwell right now. If we don’t wake up, make a change, and do our part to help her immediately it might mean the end of you and me, the end of life, and the end of all humanity.

In order to change the world you first have to change yourself. And in order to change yourself you have to be willing and brave enough to take off the blinders and face what is in front of you. There are many powers that be, many forces that do not have Mother Earth’s best interest at heart. But we have power as individuals and as consumers. We ourselves can make a change.

Living in this world, it is easy to forget how our actions impact the world around us. We destroy life, and each other, without even realizing it and this is because we’ve forgotten why we’re here and have lost sight of the wisdom and lessons our mother imparts on us every single day.
We’ve become so estranged from the things that connect us together, that, over time, we’ve forgotten the meaning of why we’re here in the first place.

So, please, come join me and let us be reminded together.

From Paraguay, With Love






Team:

Fiorella Migliore - Producer / Creator
Victoria Rochelle Stein - Director / Cinematographer
Kameron Waters - B-Camera 
Carter Feuerhelm - Editor 
Griffin Damron - Animator
Randy Ebright - Score / Music
Charles Moody - Sound Design
Patricio Eleisgui - Journalist / Expert on Agrotoxins 
Jose Luis Mendez - Environmental Activist 
Kip Andersen - Creative Consultant