FORT WILLIAM
Earlier this month, local Greenpeace volunteers took to Fort William’s High Street to speak to people and asked them to put their names to a petition calling on fast food company, Burger King, to stop ‘flame-grilling’ the Amazon rainforest.
Local Greenpeace co-oordinators Kevin and Janet Hickman were among the environmental activists and Mr Hickman told us: ‘As we all know, forest fires have been raging throughout the Amazon rainforest throughout the summer, many started deliberately by farmers, emboldened by the Brazilian president’s policies to expand agriculture.
‘The Greenpeace petition is calling on the company to stop sourcing meat and soya from Brazil while the Amazon burns. Other major brands, including North Face, have stopped sourcing raw materials from Brazil, concerned that their products could be contributing to the damage.
‘Greenpeace volunteers will be out again in the near future asking more people to put their name on the petition to be presented to Burger King.’
The BBC recently reported that Burger King sources some chicken from Brazil and also sells some British meat that is reared, at least in part, on soya shipped from the region.
The company told BBC News it had written to its meat suppliers to remind them of its policy of not accepting products raised on former rainforest land and that its beef suppliers in the UK use soya as a minor food additive only.