McDonald's has agreed to stop buying chicken fed on soya grown in deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
So what's so bad about soya?
Soya farming is chewing up the Amazon rainforest at unprecedented rates as huge areas are cleared to make way for massive monoculture plantations. The impact is huge, not only on the plants and animals that make up the forest itself but also on the communities that live there. From an illegal port built in the heart of the Amazon by agribusiness giant Cargill to handle the vast quantities of soya being shipped out from the region, soya exported by Cargill goes directly to Europe to feed the chickens found in fast food retailers like McDonald's and supermarkets across Europe.
A campaign by Greenpeace has been so successful that not only have McDonald's made their own pledge, but with the help of Greenpeace, they've been instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, ASDA and Waitrose, signed up to a zero deforestation policy as well. But it goes even further than that, and pressure from all these companies has forced their suppliers, the big multinational soya companies such as Cargill, to come to the negotiating table.
The result is a two-year moratorium on buying soya from newly deforested areas and, given that Greenpeace's campaign only began in earnest in April, this is a fantastic achievement. Well done Greenpeace. Now it's time for The Colonel of KFC to stop trashing the rainforest too.
McVictory
So what's so bad about soya?
Soya farming is chewing up the Amazon rainforest at unprecedented rates as huge areas are cleared to make way for massive monoculture plantations. The impact is huge, not only on the plants and animals that make up the forest itself but also on the communities that live there. From an illegal port built in the heart of the Amazon by agribusiness giant Cargill to handle the vast quantities of soya being shipped out from the region, soya exported by Cargill goes directly to Europe to feed the chickens found in fast food retailers like McDonald's and supermarkets across Europe.
A campaign by Greenpeace has been so successful that not only have McDonald's made their own pledge, but with the help of Greenpeace, they've been instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, ASDA and Waitrose, signed up to a zero deforestation policy as well. But it goes even further than that, and pressure from all these companies has forced their suppliers, the big multinational soya companies such as Cargill, to come to the negotiating table.
The result is a two-year moratorium on buying soya from newly deforested areas and, given that Greenpeace's campaign only began in earnest in April, this is a fantastic achievement. Well done Greenpeace. Now it's time for The Colonel of KFC to stop trashing the rainforest too.
McVictory
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