25 July
2006 - International — In an historic deal that
has impacts far beyond the golden arches and into
the global agricultural market, McDonald's is
now the leading company in the campaign to halt
deforestation for the expansion of soya farming
in the Amazon.
Thanks to enormous pressure from the thousands
of emails and letters sent to their European headquarters
by you, our supporters, McDonald's has agreed
to stop selling chicken fed on soya grown in newly
deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest.
Soya key driver of Amazon destruction
In recent years, the seemingly
unstoppable expansion of soya farming in the Amazon
had become one of the main threats to the world's
largest rainforest. The soya wasn't being used
to feed the world; instead it was used to feed
farm animals destined for fast food and supermarket
chains across Europe.
In April we launched our campaign
exposing the food retailer's role in rainforest
destruction. Our report, Eating Up the Amazon,
detailed how McDonald's and other companies were
implicated in deforestation, land-grabbing, slavery
and violence. Since then there has been a sea
change in attitude among the food industry towards
the problem.
The result is that McDonald's
and other big food retailers have worked with
us to develop a zero deforestation plan. The plan
will also help bring an end to the land-grabbing
and social injustice that is rife in the Amazon.
Pressure for change
By committing to the plan, the
companies' massive buying power has created a
huge demand for soya that hasn't been grown in
the ashes of the rainforest. This put pressure
on the 'big five' soya traders - Cargill, ADM,
Bunge, Dreyfus and Amaggi to come to the negotiating
table with the future of large areas of the Amazon
rainforest at stake.
In response to the pressure,
the soya traders committed to a limited two year
moratorium of buying soya from deforested areas.
The two-year time frame of the soya traders moratorium
risks being no more than a token gesture, unless
the traders deliver real change to protect the
Amazon.
Greenpeace is demanding that
the moratorium stays until proper procedures for
legality and governance are in place and until
there is an agreement with the Brazilian Government
and key stakeholders on long term protection for
the Amazon rainforest. A working group will be
established, made up of soya traders, producers,
NGOs, and government to put in place an action
plan.
Karen Van Bergen, Vice President
of McDonald's Europe said, "When we were
first alerted to this issue by Greenpeace, we
immediately reached out to our suppliers, other
NGOs and other companies to resolve this issue
and take action. We are determined to do the right
thing together with our suppliers and the Brazilian
government, to protect the Amazon from further
destruction."
"The two-year time frame
set for the initiative is, we hope, indicative
of the sense of urgency with which the soya traders
wish to implement the governance programme and
all of its conditions. We expect that should some
of the measures take longer than the stated two
years to implement, the moratorium would remain
in existence until all commitments have been fulfilled."
There are some companies, however,
who refuse to play ball. Kentucky Fried Chicken
(KFC), have point-blank refused to discuss their
role in Amazon destruction and so we need to show
them how isolated they're becoming. Email the
Colonel now and tell him that if Ronald McDonald
can help protect the Amazon, so can he.
