Several activists chained themselves to the conveyor belt and
the suction pump Cargill uses to unload the soya, while others
started to paint 'Forest Crime' on the company's silos.
Greenpeace forests campaign co-ordinator, Gavin Edwards, said:
"Cargill is trashing the Amazon so we can eat cheap meat. The scale
of the destruction is incredible -approximately 19,000 hectares of
the rainforest, almost the size of Amsterdam, would have to be
destroyed to grow the amount of soya on this ship alone."
Cargill, which leads the global trade in Amazon soya, (2) has
illegally built a port in the heart of the Amazon rainforest to
export its soya. Greenpeace has documented that the company has
dealt with farms that have illegally grabbed and deforested areas
of public and indigenous Amazon land. Some have even used slave
labour. (3)
"This crime stretches from Cargill's illegal operations in the
Amazon rainforest to food companies, supermarkets and fast food
chains across Europe. Cargill must stop destroying the Amazon to
grow soya and must sever its links to slavery and human rights
abuses."
Today's shipment (4) is the second to have arrived in Amsterdam
since Greenpeace first blew the whistle on the company earlier this
month.
A recent report in scientific journal Nature (5) warned that 40%
of the Amazon will be lost by 2050 if current trends in
agricultural expansion continue, threatening biodiversity and
seriously contributing to climate change. Soya monocultures also
rely heavily on toxic chemicals, and some Amazon soya is
genetically engineered.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organisation that uses
non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental
problems, and to force solutions essential to a green and peaceful
future.
Other contacts: Oliver Salge, Greenpeace Germany forests campaigner +49 171 6035531 (at the action)Maartje van Boekel, Greenpeace Netherlands media officer (at the action) +31 621296904Gavin Edwards, Greenpeace International forests campaign co-ordinator (m) +31 652 391429
Notes: (1) The activists are from: The Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Chile, Italy and Hungary.(2) Cargill, together with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Bunge, controls 60% of soya production in Brazil and more than three-quarters of Europe's soya crushing industry that supplies soya meal and oil to the animal feed market.(3) A copy of the "Eating up the Amazon' is available on:http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/eating-up-the-amazonA shorter crime file, based on the report: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/amazon-soya-crime-file(4) The Amazon soya comes from Rondonia and Pará. In 2005, 787,000 tonnes of soya were exported from Santarem: 52% went to the Netherlands; 31% to the UK; 6.5% to Spain; 6% to France.(5) Soares-Filho, B.S. et al., 2006. Modelling conservation in the Amazon basin. Nature 440:520-523. Published 23rd March 2006.
Exp. contact date: 2007-04-29 00:00:00