Ururú, one of just six of the remaining Amazonian Akuntsu tribe, died 1 October 2009. Now just five remain and since they are all either closely related or past reproductive age, the end of this tribe is inevitable.

This week the Independent reported that the fate of Akuntsu tribe “represents the long-planned realisation of one of the most successful acts of genocide in human history”. For years the tribe lived peacefully and sustainably deep in the rainforest in Brazil, but then in the 1980s soy plantations and cattle ranches took over the region; this was the beginning of the end for the Akuntsus.

Fiercely industrious, the new migrant workers knew that one thing might prevent them from creating profitable homesteads from the rainforest: the discovery of uncontacted tribes, whose land is protected from development under the Brazilian constitution.

As a result, frontiersmen who first came across the Akuntsu in the mid-1980s made a simple calculation. The only way to prevent the government finding out about this indigenous community was to wipe them off the map.

At some point, believed to be around 1990, scores of Akuntsu were massacred at a site roughly five hours’ drive from the town of Vilhena. Only seven members of the tribe escaped, retreating deeper into the wilderness to survive.

Cattle ranching is the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon; soy plantations, which predominantly provide feed for animals in the West, are close behind. Corporations behind these industries don’t care about the rights of indigenous people, they only care about the money. People are forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and poisoned by pesticides from soy plantations; their lives ruined. But whilst we continue to buy cheap meat in vast quantities, the soy and meat industries will do whatever they need to do to provide it for us. Protect the rights of indigenous people, challenge governments and corporations, but don’t forget to take personal responsibility too.

Read the full Independent article here: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/decline-of-a-tribe-and-then-there-were-five-1801795.html

Congratulations to Greenpeace, their report, Slaughtering the Amazon, which highlights the fact that cattle ranching is the major cause of deforestation in the Amazon, has prompted Brazil’s top three retail groups to ban the purchase of beef originating in deforested areas of the Amazon.

Greenpeace: Destruction of the Amazon, the world’s most important forest carbon store, is being driven by the cattle sector. The Brazilian Amazon has the greatest annual average deforestation by area of anywhere in the world. The cattle sector is the key driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. According to the Brazilian government: ‘Cattle are responsible for about 80% of all deforestation’ in the Amazon region. In recent years, on average one hectare of Amazon rainforest has been lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds.

In reaction to this, retailers CBD, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have pledged to ban beef purchased from farms accused of deforestation. Of course, while there is still demand for beef, and as consumption grows, the farmers will have to increase their land area and this will no doubt impact the Amazon.

Also this week, a study published in Science confirmed what we all know already; that slashing and burning the forest to produce soy and cattle doesn’t help anyone but big business. The Guardian reports that “Chopping down the Amazon rainforest to make way for crops or cattle has no economic or social benefit for local people in the long term. Conservationists showed communities develop rapidly but temporarily when forests are cleared. But rates of development quickly fall back below national average levels when the loggers move on and local resources near depletion.”
Read the article here.

Friends of the Earth released a report today to expose the vast amounts of public money - over £700 million per year - used to support factory farming in England. In their report, Feeding the Beast, they say “Factory farming for meat and dairy is at the heart of a hidden chain that links the food on our plates to rainforest destruction in South America. To make them grow quickly and produce high yields, animals in factory farms are being pumped full of imported soy crops – creating demand for vast plantations that are wiping out forests and forcing communities off their lands in South America”.

A spokesperson from the National Farmers Union said, “We have nothing against small scale, low output, farming systems but to suppose this is a model which will feed the world’s growing population is disingenuous. Either Friends of the Earth is looking to use much more of the world’s land area for farming – which really would put wilderness and rainforest at risk – or it imagines that, in some way or other, the world’s population is going to be dramatically smaller.”

Of course, the NFU don’t want to consider the third option; that people switch to a plant-based diet. Simon Fairlie, co-editor of the Ecologist, made an analysis of different agricultural systems in his article ‘Can Britain Feed Itself?’, published in his magazine The Land. He calculated that with a vegan permaculture system, we could not only feed everyone but we’d also have 8.8 million hectares of land spare.

“Right now, huge swathes of rainforest are being cut down to feed the global appetite for beef and leather”, so say Greenpeace, following te release of their new report Amazon Cattle Footprint.

The report confirms what we have known for some time; that cattle ranching is the main cause of Amazon destruction. Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter with a market share of 30%. The Brazilian government has plans to increase their share to 60% in the next decade which can only result in further deforestation.

As the forest is destroyed huge amounts of carbon dioxide are released, which contributes to climate change (deforestation of tropical forests is responsible for approximately 20% of the global emissions
of greenhouse gases); many of the tens of thousands of species of plant, mammals, fish and birds come under severe threat of extinction and indigenous people lose their homes. In addition to this, cattle ranching itself results in further greenhouse gas emissions (methane from the cows) and subjects many workers to slavery (cattle ranching is responsible for the highest rates of slave labour in Brazil).

Whilst Greenpeace target industry and governments to take strong action to halt deforestation, we all, as individuals can take action too. The global meat industry exists because consumers create the demand. If you stop buying meat, there is no reason for the Brazilian government to clear any more forests to produce it.

Find out more about food choices that are sustainable, equitable and environmentally responsible.

Dick Bond, the CEO of the world’s largest meat producing company, Tyson, has revealed this week that he is leaving. Considering Tyson’s earnings fell by 68% to $86 million in the last fiscal year, it’s no wonder he decided to leave.  But perhaps there is a more straight forward reason for his sudden resignation. Bond is now 61 and if he eats as much meat as you’d expect the CEO of Tyson to, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few health issues.

Tyson is not looking healthy either; increased feed prices have taken it’s toll on Tyson and other meat producing companies. It seems Bond still has some faith in the company though, he said “I have a lot of both my time and personal finances invested in Tyson Foods, so I wish the company all the best for future success”. I wonder how long he’ll give it until he moves his investments elsewhere.

Bond has made some unpopular decisions of late. The US Agriculture Department has forecast a chicken production reduction of 1.3% for 2009 and many chicken producers are reducing their production.  However, Tyson has been over producing chicken. Market analyst Timothy Ramey said “We were disturbed by the way Mr. Bond seemed unconcerned with his risky strategy of continuing to overproduce poultry”.

Tyson favour the industrialised farming of animals, especially chicken.  The chicken are fed a diet of soy and other grains, resulting in the destruction of the Amazonian rain forest as well as abuses human rights.  To produce such a damaging ‘product’ is immoral, and even more so if you are deliberately increasing production when you know the demand for it is decreasing.

It’s not a great week for Tyson. Also this week they were ordered to pay a fine of $500,000 after willfully violating worker safety regulations which resulted in the death of an employee.

Tyson are an unethical and unsustainable company, responsible for environmental destruction, animal cruelty and human rights abuses. They are the biggest meat producing company in the world, their products sold in fast food chains, restaurants and supermarkets. But we can stop them. If we don’t eat meat, they have no reason to exist.

The World Bank has lent $90 million to Bertin Ltda, Brazil’s second-largest beef processors.

According to Mario Menezes, of Amigos da Terra, Brazil looses 1.8 million hectares of Amazon forest every year, and around 70 and 80 per cent is because of cattle ranching. Brazil already exports 300,000 tonnes of beef per year (41% of which from the Amazon) which is more than any other country.  This injection of cash in to the cattle industry will create further destruction.

The Amazon is home to 75 million cows and Bertin Ltda slaughters up to 5,400 cows a day. However, with the use of this loan and others, they aim to double their capacity, which includes expanding their facility in the heart of the most deforested area of the Amazon. By expanding this slaughter house, they will, without question, encourage farmers to clear more forest to raise more cattle. Much of the land in that area is illegally cleared.

The Amazon rainforest is home to a fifth of the world’s plant and animal species and more than 200 indigenous cultures. As the forest is destroyed, we lose hundreds of species each year, indigenous people are forced off their land, the impacts of poverty is exacerbated, and carbon is being released in to the atmostphere - a major contributer to climate change. We are loosing the ‘lungs of the earth’ and we will all suffer as a consequence.

Brazil’s biggest importers of beef include the UK.  And remember, one of the other main drivers of Amazon destruction is soy, 90% of which is fed to animals raised for meat in Europe and China.

Be part of the solution. Stop eating meat and dairy, and ask others to do the same. In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not so much to ask.

Brazil’s new environment minister has blamed cattle for the recent increase in deforestation of the Amazon.

Brazil’s previous environment minister, Marina Silva, blamed the increasing deforestation of the Amazon on Brazilian cattle ranchers and farmers and now the new minister, Carlos Minc, has announced that he also believes this to be the case - so much so that he has introduced new measures in an attempt to halt the destruction.

As the price of meat and grain increases, so does the illegal logging of the Amazon to make way for cattle. To combat this, Minc has warned that the government will impound cattle caught grazing on illegally cleared pastures with an operation dubbed “Rogue Bull.”

Forest is not only cleared for cattle grazing but also to make way for soy planatations. Around 90% of the world’s soy is fed to animals and it is now widely recognised that feeding the 73 million cows of the Amazon, and all the others animals raised for meat in the world, is the biggest driver of deforestation. On top of this, 75% of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions are caused by burning to clear new or overgrown pasture for cattle. The contribution to climate change this creates is further exasperated by the the methane that the cows produce.

Forests are crucial to the health of the planet. They clean the air, produce rainfall and absorb carbon dioxide. Without forests we all suffer - the animals and people who live there and the rest of us who depend on the environmental benefits they give us.

We know the meat industry is the leading cause of deforestation, therefore the solution is simple. Go vegan.

The recent United Nations’ Global Environment Outlook-4 report has revealed that water, land, air, plants, animals and fish stocks are all in “inexorable decline” as each individual person’s environmental footprint has now grown to an average of 22 hectares of the planet - 7 hectares per person more than the planet can provide. We have now reached a point where the amount of resources required by human beings exceeds what our ailing planet can provide.

There is no question that we must change how we live our lives. We must make the most efficient use of our planet - our survival depends on it. We know that meat uses huge amounts of water and land and that it is the most inefficient food source. For example, cows need to eat 7g of grain to produce just 1g of meat. For the future of the planet, we must stop eating meat.

Species are also becoming extinct 100 times faster than in the past (as shown by fossil studies). The Amazon rain forest is disappearing at a frightening rate - 70% of land which was once forest, is now used for grazing cattle and a large proportion of the rest is used to grow crops for animal feed. Meat is responsible for vast areas of the biodiversity rich Amazon being destroyed and for the extinctions that have occured as a result.

Western consumers must rethink how they are living their lives and they must do so now. The planet cannot wait any longer.