photo_credit: foeeurope

Soy production in South America has more than doubled in the last 15 years. Brazil is the world's 2nd largest exporter and more than half of Brazil's soy production is in the centre and south of the country, on land that was once covered by natural habitat. About 16% of the Amazon forests and 60% of the Cerrado grasslands have already been lost. After falling deforestation rates in 2007, the recent soy price boom has fuelled an increase in deforestation, with more than 770,000 hectares of forest cleared between August 2007 and August 2008 alone. It is estimated that a further 9.6 million hectares of Cerrado could be lost to soy expansion by 2020 and 40% of Amazon rainforest by 2050.

Deforestation accounts for about a quarter of global CO2 emissions. A significant proportion of this is emissions from deforestation for grazing and growing feed - mainly in rich forests in South America. Reducing emissions from deforestation will therefore be essential in order to achieve the objective of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Centigrade. Deforestation has taken centre stage at global climate talks and the EU has committed to halting global forest cover loss by 2030, at the latest, and to reducing gross tropical deforestation by at least 50% by 2020 compared to current levels.

FoE believes that the EU will fail to meet these targets without addressing one of the root causes of global deforestation - the consumption of animal feeds.

Soy: Feeding European factory farms >>