August 4, 2006

 

Brazilian group denounces efforts to ban soy grown in Amazon region

 

 

The Agricultural Federation of Mato Grosso (Famoto) said Thursday (Aug 3) that they opposed a decision made last month by the nation's soy crushers and traders, prohibiting purchases of soybeans grown in recently deforested regions of the Amazon biome.

 

The biome includes part of north Mato Grosso, Brazil's biggest soy-producing state.

 

On Jul 24, the Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association (Abiove), and the National Association of Grain Exporters (Anec), said they agreed to no longer buy soy from recently deforested Amazon forest for the next two years. The decision comes on the heels of an announcement by McDonald's Corp in Europe to stop buying soymeal for chicken feed made from soybeans in the Amazon. McDonald's made the decision, the company said, following a report titled "Eating the Amazon" by Greenpeace International, which put much of the onus on Amazon deforestation on McDonald's.

 

Normando Corral, president of Famato, sent a written statement to reporters Thursday, saying members of the group repudiated Abiove and Anec's decision and called it "nefarious".

 

Corral said that the two organisations, which represent major exporters and soy crushers like Cargill and Bunge, were "succumbing to pressure from non-government environmental organisations, worse yet the radical group Greenpeace, whose mission has been to impede social and economic development in developing countries like Brazil...ironically in favour of rich countries whose agriculture depends on subsidies to survive and do not use the sustainable environmental practices required from Brazil."

 

Although 10 percent of Mato Grosso is considered part of the Amazon jungle, most of the soy farms are in the centre and south, which are not part of the Amazon biome.

 

Famato did not say in the statement whether farmers have deforested any land this year.

 

Most soy growers in Mato Grosso will be decreasing their planted area in the 2006/07 season due to heavy debt burdens.

 

Abiove did not comment on Famato's statement.

 

Brazil is the world's second-leading producer of soybeans behind the US.