Study Shows Ahold Delhaize, Casino, Metro and Other European Supermarkets Are Driving Destruction of the Amazon

A new peer-reviewed analysis published in Science magazine shows that one-fifth of Brazil’s soy exports to the EU may be linked to illegal deforestation. Mighty Earth Senior Director Alex Armstrong released the following statement in response:

“A new study in Science clearly shows that supermarkets and other food suppliers in Europe are fueling the ecological destruction of Latin America, from the Amazon to the Cerrado. As much as 22 percent of the soy exported from Brazil to Europe is the result of illegal deforestation, with even greater amounts coming from legally cleared land.

“But, tellingly, the bulk of the destruction is coming from a few bad actors. The researchers found that only two percent of the farms accounted for a whopping 62 percent of the deforestation. That means that European supermarkets have a responsibility to stop purchasing from these guilty companies.

“One of these hotspots is the municipality Formosa do Rio Preto, the area with the most deforestation risk exporting to Europe according to Trase. Bunge alone is responsible for over fifty percent of exports from this area, while France and Germany account for nearly a third of the market for this risky soy.

“Ahold Delhaize, Casino, Metro, and others must immediately cancel or renegotiate contracts with the companies driving the destruction of the Amazon.”