Robert B Fishman
The Amazon forest is burning. Increasingly louder is the call to the European Union not to ratify the Mercosur free trade agreement with the South American states until Brazil and its neighboring countries protect the rainforest. Ireland has announced that it will not sign the agreement. French President Emanuel Macron is also thinking about it. There is nothing concrete about this from the German Federal Government.
But why is the Amazon forest burning? Large agricultural companies want to plant mainly soya plantations and pastures for cattle herds on the burnt land. And then? In a few years, these soils are so drained that nothing grows there. The country becomes a steppe - as in northeastern Brazil, where the rainforest was cut down earlier. The fire devils continue until the entire rainforest is destroyed.
And what does that have to do with us? Very much: feed manufacturers buy the soy from the Amazon. They process it into feed for the cows and pigs in European stables. The beef that grows on former rainforest areas is also largely exported - including to Europe.
The tropical wood from the rainforest is processed into furniture, paper and charcoal. We buy and consume these products. If we did not take them off, slash and burn in the Amazon region would no longer be profitable. As consumers, we have a great influence on what happens in the South American rainforest. Do we have to buy cheap meat from factory farming at discount stores and grill it with charcoal from South America or Indonesia? Who is forcing us to set up garden furniture made of tropical wood?
Palm oil is found in most industrially manufactured convenience foods, for example in chocolate bars. And where does it come from: Borneo. For years, the Indonesian part of the island has been clearing the rainforest to plant palm plantations - because European and US food companies are buying palm oil. They do that because we consume their products made with them. The same applies to cocoa plantations on deforested rainforest areas in West Africa. This will make the chocolate that we buy cheap in European supermarkets. Biologist Jutta Kill explains in an interview in the daily newspaper taz about the impact of our lifestyle on the destruction of rainforests. You can find this here: https://taz.de/Biologin-ueber-Amazonasbraende/!5619405/
There is an interesting initiative by the Austrian farmers' union. No beef import from Brazil. Maybe someone could give them food for thought that the feed (soy) from many farmers also comes from Brazil. It is probably more environmentally friendly if the meat and not the soy is imported. (Arithmetic exercise). Not relevant to me though - don't eat meat