22 May 2006 - After two
years of investigation, we’ve uncovered a string
of illegal soy production that is destroying the
Amazon rainforest, and can be traced to a large
American corporation: Cargill.
A team of climbers from our ship, the Arctic Sunrise,
shut down Cargill’s illegal soy facility in the
heart of the Amazon rainforest. Our activists
unfurled a banner on the conveyor belts at Cargill’s
facility, but angry Cargill employees nearby blasted
the sign down with high-powered hoses. Police
arrived on the scene and arrested 16 of our activists.
The Arctic Sunrise itself blockaded
the Cargill port, preventing exports of soy from
leaving the facility.
In the nearby city of Santarém,
a group of Cargill’s supporters surrounded the
police station holding our activists, but were
dispersed by military police.
Police secured the Arctic Sunrise
as well, but an angry mob boarded our ship despite
the police presence, and painted graffiti along
the sides. Fireworks were also aimed at our ship
and activists, even hitting an activist in the
chest, but fortunately leaving him unharmed. Meanwhile,
police used pepper spray to force the crew to
open the radio room, and took them into custody.
The rest of our activists were put in lockdown
within the ship. Cargill tug boats pushed our
ship out of the dock, dragging it and our anchor
out into the Tapajos river.
The illegal soy Cargill is producing
has been linked to a massive fast food chain,
including KFC’s European restaurants. These fast
food chains are literally eating up the Amazon,
and we’ve detailed exactly how in a recent report.
Our volunteers want to prevent
soy from the world’s most precious rainforest
being exported to Europe to feed chickens, pigs
and cows -- and you can help support them by writing
to KFC.
Cargill, based in the United
States, is the largest soy producer and exporter
in the Amazon, operating 13 silos in the heart
of the Amazon rainforest.
Soy is now a leading cause of
rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.
In total, an estimated 12,000 square miles of
what was once rainforest has already been destroyed,
mostly illegally, to grow soybeans. Cargill makes
no secret of helping establish soy farms in the
Amazon, some of which are complicit in other illegal
activities such as land grabbing and slavery.
Corporations like Cargill must
stop seeing the Amazon as a place to expand their
soy businesses, and recognise it as the world’s
greatest rainforest in need of urgent protection,
not exploitation. We’re calling on Cargill, and
their fast-food industry customers, to ensure
that the soy and animal feed they buy does not
contribute to the destruction of the Amazon.
