Cathedral City cheese, Anchor butter and Cadbury chocolate 'linked to Amazon deforestation', Greenpe
Cathedral City cheese, Anchor butter and Cadbury chocolate ‘linked to Amazon deforestation’, Greenpeace claims
Dairy in household brands is from farms using animal feed from soya supply chain connected to environmental destruction
Harry Cockburn
Environment Correspondent
2 hours ago
Soya farm field besides the original forest of the Amazon in Brazil
(Getty)
Well known supermarket brands such as Cathedral City Cheddar, Cadbury chocolate, Anchor butter, Country Life butter and Davidstow Cheddar, have been linked to “the destruction of vast tracts of Brazilian forest”, through use of farms which feed cattle soya sold by a controversial supplier.
A group of British farms, which sell their milk to these companies, source some of their animal feed from companies buying Brazilian soya exported by the US grain giant Cargill, the investigation by Greenpeace, ITV and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism claims.
They allegedly uncovered a complex soya supply chain linking British dairy farms to “environmental devastation” thousands of miles away in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado regions. Both regions are already at huge risk from further deterioration from fire and deforestation, largely to create more agricultural land.
The Cerrado region, where most of Brazil’s soya is grown, is home to 5 per cent of the world’s plant and animal species, while the Amazon contains 10 per cent of all known species.
More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/cathedral-city-cadbury-brazil-deforestation-b1938539.html
~ ~ ~
There's another part of Brazil that's dying even faster than the Amazon
9.23.2019
The Amazon is still burning, but it's not the only environmental crisis Brazil is staring down at the moment. Just a few miles south of the rainforest is Brazil's Cerrado region, a massive, bio-diverse eco-region that stretches for more than 200 million hectares, accounting for more than 21 percent of all land in Brazil. The area serves as home to thousands of different species of plants, animals, and insects and serves as a massive carbon sink, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Just like the neighboring Amazon, the Cerrado is being destroyed by deforestation — except it's happening at a much faster rate.
To understand how devastating it would be to lose the Cerrado, it's important to know just how unique the region is. Cerrado is what is called "mosaic" habitat, meaning it is made up of multiple types of habitats. This particular one contains savannahs, grasslands, wetlands and forest. Those eco-regions contain more than 200 types of mammals, 800 species of birds, 120 kinds of reptiles, 150 types of amphibians, 1,200 species of fish, 90 million kinds of insects and more than 11,000 plant species. In total, the area is home to five percent of the planet’s animals and plants. According to World Wide Fund for Nature, the Cerrado is one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world. It is also a particularly important source of water in the region, serving as the starting point for six of Brazil's 12 major hydrological regions. Water originating from the region also serves as a source of electricity for nine out of 10 Brazilians who get their energy from hydroelectric plants.
All of that should present a self-evident case for why protecting the Cerrado is important. Yet, just three percent of the area is considered to be legally protected. The rest is subject to use for all sorts of agricultural purposes. Since the 1950s, the unique landscape has been subject to massive amounts of deforestation. As much as 50 percent of the land has already been deforested, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and more than 70,000 hectares are disappearing every year. By 2030, it is projected that Cerrado will lose tens of millions of additional acres of its native vegetation. As that land disappears, the species that call it home are put in peril. That is particularly troubling because nearly 5,000 species of animal in the Cerrado are considered endemic, meaning they are native to the region. Pushing them out will result in them migrating to unfamiliar habitats where they may be invasive or struggle to survive. Many of the plant species found in the region have yet to be found anywhere else on earth, and destroying their habitat could mean losing those types of plants for good.
To understand how devastating it would be to lose the Cerrado, it's important to know just how unique the region is. Cerrado is what is called "mosaic" habitat, meaning it is made up of multiple types of habitats. This particular one contains savannahs, grasslands, wetlands and forest. Those eco-regions contain more than 200 types of mammals, 800 species of birds, 120 kinds of reptiles, 150 types of amphibians, 1,200 species of fish, 90 million kinds of insects and more than 11,000 plant species. In total, the area is home to five percent of the planet’s animals and plants. According to World Wide Fund for Nature, the Cerrado is one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world. It is also a particularly important source of water in the region, serving as the starting point for six of Brazil's 12 major hydrological regions. Water originating from the region also serves as a source of electricity for nine out of 10 Brazilians who get their energy from hydroelectric plants.
All of that should present a self-evident case for why protecting the Cerrado is important. Yet, just three percent of the area is considered to be legally protected. The rest is subject to use for all sorts of agricultural purposes. Since the 1950s, the unique landscape has been subject to massive amounts of deforestation. As much as 50 percent of the land has already been deforested, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and more than 70,000 hectares are disappearing every year. By 2030, it is projected that Cerrado will lose tens of millions of additional acres of its native vegetation. As that land disappears, the species that call it home are put in peril. That is particularly troubling because nearly 5,000 species of animal in the Cerrado are considered endemic, meaning they are native to the region. Pushing them out will result in them migrating to unfamiliar habitats where they may be invasive or struggle to survive. Many of the plant species found in the region have yet to be found anywhere else on earth, and destroying their habitat could mean losing those types of plants for good.
Ostriches are seen at a farm in the Cerrado ecosystem, outskirts of Brasilia, Brazil, . . .
ERALDO PERES/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
Its destruction also means the loss of a significant carbon storage center. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the Cerrado holds about 118 tons of carbon per acre — the equivalent to how much about 25 standard passenger vehicles emit over the course of one year. Greenpeace recently suggested that Cerrado's remaining vegetation could store up to 13.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. For comparison's sake, global carbon emissions from fossil fuel use were just under 9.8 gigatonnes in 2014. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned continued destruction of lands like Cerrado could limit the region's ability to capture carbon, minimizing one of its important purposes in protecting not only the many species that live there, but also the overall wellbeing of the planet.
More:
https://www.mic.com/impact/brazils-cerrado-region-faces-deforestation-endangering-thousands-of-species-18794530
~ ~ ~
Deforestation in the Cerrado
Burger King Linked to a Whopping Million-Plus Acres of Deforestation
Half of Brazil’s savanna is already gone, and big soy has taken over
All photos by Jim Wickens/Ecostorm
By Joanna Nix | Mar 20 2017
You might think soy is just a green, harmless alternative for those trying to steer away from meat and toward a plant-based diet. Not exactly: Three-quarters of the world’s soy is used for animal feed, and about half of it is exported from South America—grown on deforested land that has been cleared away for massive soy fields.
“The soybeans connected to deforestation are making their way to the feed of the chickens, pigs, and cows that people all around the world eat,” says Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of the campaign group Mighty Earth. “Almost every international company that sells meat has some connection to deforestation in their supply chain.”
Enter Burger King.
Using satellite and supply-chain mapping tools, Mighty Earth connected the fast-food giant to a whopping million-plus acres of forest-clearing. In its new report, “The Ultimate Mystery Meat,” the global campaign organization identified two of Burger King’s biggest soy suppliers as the culprits: Cargill, the largest privately owned company in the United States, and Bunge, one of the biggest players in South America.
“The destruction of tropical forests causes something around one-fifth of the world’s total climate pollution, and deforestation also threatens some of the most endangered species in the world,” says Hurowitz.
More:
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/green-life/burger-king-linked-whopping-million-plus-acres-deforestation
