About 95 percent of crops are chemically-induced in Argentina, making it one of the world’s leading cereal, corn, and soybean producers. But locals say underneath this growth is a story of death and disease.

Alfredo Ceran, 63, worked for nine years as a ground crop-duster applying agrochemicals in soybean fields in Monte Maiz, Cordoba. His fingernails are burned. His blood tests have shown residues of glyphosate, chlorpyrifos, azatrine, 2.4-D and cypermethrin. He has had a liver transplant because of cancer, among other major surgeries. He also suffers from non-alcoholic cirrhosis.

“In the decade that I spent working I was never given useful or decent protection of any kind, just gloves that I would usually buy for myself,” Ceran said. “To save money and time we would mix as much as seven products in the same round of application, when the norm established that you should never mix more than three products at once.