According to the British "Sky News" local time on the 13th, the British people's demand for meat makes the breeding industry need a large amount of soybean feed, which has caused the Amazon rainforest on the other side of the world to suffer, the British meat industry and its supply supermarkets are continuing to carry out illegal logging in the Amazon and convert forest land into agricultural land.
Last year, nearly 12,000 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were destroyed, which is equivalent to the loss of four football fields every minute.
According to reports, a number of non-governmental environmental organizations such as "Mighty Earth", "Reporter Brazil" and "Ecostorm" (Ecostorm) recently launched a joint investigation, and by combining satellite data with ground observation data, it was found that the British livestock industry imported a large number of Brazilian soybeans as feed, resulting in serious deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
Cattle farming and clearing land for soybeans are the main causes of massive illegal deforestation in the Amazon. In 2022, nearly 12,000 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were destroyed, equivalent to the loss of a forest the size of four standard football fields every minute.
Screenshot from Sky News
Investigations have revealed a direct link between illegal logging in the Amazon and soybeans shipped from Brazil to Britain by U.S. commodities giant Cargill.
About 70% of the soybeans in the UK livestock industry are sourced from Brazil through Cargill, while 75% of Cargill's soybeans are exported worldwide from the Brazilian port of Santarem. To meet this demand, Cargill's suppliers have cut down the Amazon rainforest and continue to build and expand plantations.
The Santa Ana farm in Brazil's Mato Grosso state is one of Cargill's suppliers, but 4 square kilometers of forest were burned last year, and researchers estimate there should be about 220,000 trees in the area, the report said. Cargill removed the farm from the list of approved suppliers following an investigation by Brazilian authorities into its previous illegal logging, and then reinstated it in 2022.
Glenn Hurowitz, chief executive of environmental group Strong Earth, said: "If Cargill, the largest private company in the United States, wants to be part of the solution to climate change and the natural crisis, it should source (soybeans) from suppliers who cultivate already degraded land, which has about 6.5 million square kilometers in Latin America alone, rather than from those who are still burning forests." ”
On the other hand, Avara, the UK's largest poultry producer, is partly owned by Cargill and fed directly by Cargill. The company claims to have sourced its soybeans only from "certified farms" that do not deforestate since 2019.
But after the joint findings were published, Avala had to issue a statement blaming "non-certified farms": "Obviously, the challenge is that there are still uncertified farms growing soybeans in high-risk areas and there is demand for their products." ”
Avala reportedly produces 4.5 million chickens and turkey products a week in the UK, supplying large shopping malls and catering businesses including Tesco, McDonald's and KFC.
Gemma Hoskins, Mighty Earth's UK division director, has slammed Tesco, the UK's largest retailer, for working with Cargill to fuel illegal logging in the Amazon forest, harming the health of local communities, harming wildlife and destroying valuable habitats.
Tesco, like Avala, signed an industry agreement promising to ensure that its supply chain is completely free of "deforestation" or "woodland to farm" by 2020.
In a statement sent to Sky News, Tesco said: "We take very seriously any allegations of illegal deforestation and conversion of forest land in our supply chain and we immediately seek clarification from Cargill and remove farms that have been identified as problematic from their supply chain until a full investigation is conducted." ”
Cargill responded that the company has launched an additional investigation into the operations of the farms involved in 2022 under the grievance process in response to the latest allegations. If any violation of its policies or commitments is discovered, the supplier will be "blocked" immediately.
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