"Eating Up the Amazon" (another "inconvenient truth")

[flvegan]

"The Amazon is the largest expanse of tropical rainforest in the world, but it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Since the 1970s, an area of rainforest the size of California has been lost.

Most people know that the Amazon is under threat. But few know that today, the principal cause of the Amazon’s destruction is soy.

Soy traders encourage farmers to cut down the rainforest and plant massive soy monocultures. The traders take the soy and ship it to Europe where it is fed to animals like chickens and pigs. The animals are then turned into fast food products.

Three major companies - ADM, Bunge and Cargill - account for 60 percent of the total financing of soy production in Brazil. By building soy silos and terminals at the rainforest edge and buying soy from illegally-cleared and operated farms - including farms with a documented record of slave labor - these companies are both spurring and profiting from the soy plunder of the Amazon."

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/forests-worldwide/the-amazon-rainforest

"Eating Up the Amazon" is a 64-page report, published by Greenpeace. It's a must-read.
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/usa/press/reports/eating-up-the-amazon.pdf

[Der Blaue Engel]

1. So...soymilk's right out, then...what's a vegan to do? n/t

[MH1]

2. If you are eating soy instead of meat, then you are causing less impact

to wherever the crops might be grown, because you are simply consuming less.

Ideally we would all eat mostly locally grown foods, but even in my natural foods store, most all I can get that's locally grown is mushrooms and broccoli sprouts. And milk.

[Der Blaue Engel]

3. I believe an earlier thread on this advocated boycotting soy products

Maybe I misread. :shrug:

[MH1]

4. I didn't see the earlier thread

and I hope I didn't come off smart ass or anything.

Monoculture is a huge problem. I even posted on my blog recently about it being a problem for biofuels and carbon credits, too.

But, the Amazon rainforest will be destroyed unless and until there are steps taken to protect it - if it isn't soy, it will be something else.

I don't think the answer is boycotting anything, it is enforcing wilderness protection and sustainable agriculture practices. And personally we can try to make choices that cause less impact to the planet, and where possible we can vote with our dollars to support sustainable practices. But a vegan has already gone a long way further than most of us, just by not eating meat.

[flvegan]

6. Yes an earlier thread did.

I believe that the suggestion was in error, and was to steer more towards palm oil, as the soybean oil suggested in the thread wasn't touched upon.

Go...figure.

[flvegan]

9. Yes, way to miss the point after NOT reading the article.

Good show!

Do we have an applause smilie that actually fits, here?

[Der Blaue Engel]

10. I was asking you a sincere question

Jesus. Everyone on this site is so damn uptight and rude lately. I wanted to know what, as a vegan, one was supposed to do if one were to boycott soy.

Way to jump down my throat and offer nothing in the way of response.

[jaksavage]

5. Our world gets smaller

And the things that matter to us matters in other countries as well.

So bringing human rights, basic sustainable services, enviro protects
and birth control worldwide is to our benefit.

IMPEACH
get out and show yourselves

[LSK]

7. the other side of the Global Warming problem is less trees

Trees consume CO2.

K&R

[Jcrowley]

8. Cree Prophecy

[peacebuzzard]

11. There is hope that the massive deforestation can be arrested.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34095

the consciousness level is being raised and petitions are being signed and directed toward the government of Brazil against Cargill and the likes.

Greenpeace, once again, a heroic organization.