Exposed: How our weekly shop fuels destruction of the Amazon rainforest
EVERYDAY items we consume are indirectly fuelling the destruction of the Amazon, investigators reveal.
UK farms supplying dairy products for Cathedral City Cheddar, Anchor butter and Cadbury chocolate feed their cattle soy from a business accused of widespread deforestation in Brazil.
The complex soy supply chains that link British dairy to environmental devastation thousands of miles away in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado region have been uncovered by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism alongside Greenpeace Unearthed, Reporter Brasil, our sister paper the Daily Mirror and ITV News.
Both areas are critical for biodiversity and tackling climate breakdown.
The Cerrado region, where most of Brazil’s soy is grown, is home to five per cent of the world’s plant and animal species. Greenpeace UK’s Anna Jones said: “The global meat and dairy industry is fuelling the climate and nature emergency, and this needs to stop.”
The probe uncovered how farms which sell milk to Cadbury, cheese maker Saputo and dairy firm Arla source animal feed from companies buying Brazilian soy exported by the US grain giant Cargill, which has previously faced allegations of its soy being linked to deforestation but it dominates the soy trade into the UK, controlling about 70 per cent of the market.
It ships more than 100,000 tons of soya beans to the UK every year from Cerrado alone.
The probe found one of Cargill’s biggest suppliers, Grupo Scheffer, has been responsible for multiple environmental damage incidents. In 2019, it was fined more than $450,000 for clearing more than 5 sq km of protected forest.
Kerry McCarthy, shadow minister for green transport, said: “These revelations are yet more proof that overseas deforestation is deeply embedded in UK supply chains and in everyday supermarket products.”
A Cargill spokesman said: “Cargill has worked relentlessly to build a more sustainable soy supply chain while supporting farmers.”
Saputo, which produces Cathedral City cheese, said: “From early 2022, all farms which supply to Saputo Dairy UK’s Davidstow creamery must source feed from suppliers with a sustainable soy purchasing policy.”
Anchor butter maker Arla said: “Arla and the farmers that own our cooperative are taking steps to manage our use of soy responsibly.”
Mondelez, which makes Cadbury, said: “We’re working to promote sustainable business practices.”