Agronomist Iris Pellot walked up to a plain laid bare by herbicide. Only crops of genetically modified corn could withstand this agrochemical. With safety goggles, steel-tipped leather boots and a four-month-old pregnant belly, she showed for work with crops from the multinational Monsanto in the village of Isabela, northwest of the transgenic epicenter of Puerto Rico. Her hands brushed the plants like many times before, but that day, her skin was marked with embossed red lines, as if it had been whipped with a burning wand. Pellot raises her head to catch some air, scratching her neck as if her throat was still stinging, and goes back to that day of 2010 in a mental journey.