China’s Largest Food Trader Announces Support for Ending Deforestation in South America, Putting Pressure on US-Based Cargill

COFCO, China’s state-owned food processing company and the country’s largest food trader, has announced support for an extension of the Amazonian Soy Moratorium to the other forest and savannah regions of South America and new efforts to address deforestation in commodity supply chains. In response, Mighty Earth CEO Glenn Hurowitz released the following statement:

“COFCO has recognized that you don’t need deforestation to supply China’s food. Indeed, COFCO knows that protecting native ecosystems is both essential to safeguarding food security and an ‘ethical imperative.’

“Scientific studies have shown that continued deforestation in South America will dramatically reduce soy harvests within 25 years and have demonstrated that agriculture can be expanded on Latin America’s more than one billion acres of degraded land without threatening native ecosystems or climate. We’ve been advising COFCO on the implementation of their sustainability policies and have seen clear signs of their commitment to act.

“In calling for an expansion of the highly successful Amazonian Soy Moratorium to other endangered ecosystems in South America, COFCO has joined industry leaders Louis-Dreyfus and Wilmar. There’s simply no excuse for laggards like Cargill to continue driving deforestation.”

Additional resources

• The Ultimate Mystery Meat: Exposing the Secrets Behind Burger King and Global Meat Production
• Still At It: Cargill and Bunge Caught Destroying the Equivalent of 10,000 Football Fields for the Global Meat Trade
• Avoidable Crisis: The European Meat Industry’s Environmental Catastrophe
• Soy Giant Louis Dreyfus Announces Zero Deforestation Policy, Throwing Down Gauntlet to Competitors