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Death by soy in Brazil’s El Cerrado
La Vangaurdia | December 22, 2019
Investment funds and large brokers have destroyed 40% of the forests on the southwest plateau of the Amazon
Why Asia, and the rest of the world, need low-carbon steel
Eco-Business | December 17, 2019
If the steel sector were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-biggest emitter after China, the United States, Europe and India. Can developers and car and appliance makers be galvanised to adopt a new standard for responsible steel?
How the makers of M&M’s tried and failed to make their chocolate green
The Independent | November 16, 2019
‘Anytime someone bites on a chocolate bar in the United States, a tree is being cut down,’ Eric Agnero tells.
FSC report on palm giant Korindo lists litany of violations
Mongabay | November 11, 2019
The Forest Stewardship Council has released a batch of heavily redacted reports into its probe of violations by a palm oil company operating in Indonesia, after it was earlier slapped with a cease-and-desist letter.
The Trouble with Chocolate
The Washington Post | October 29, 2019
A decade after Mars and other chocolate makers vowed to stop rampant deforestation, the problem has gotten worse.
Indonesian court fines palm oil firm $18.5m over forest fires in 2015
Mongabay | October 28, 2019
An Indonesian court has fined a palm oil company $18.5 million for fires that destroyed 970 hectares (2,400 acres) of forest on its concession in Borneo in 2015.
The New Makers of Plant-Based Meat? Big Meat Companies
The New York Times | October 14, 2019
Tyson, Smithfield, Perdue and Hormel have all rolled out meat alternatives, filling supermarket shelves with an array of plant-based burgers, meatballs and chicken nuggets.
UK fast food ‘linked to Brazilian forest fires’
BBC | October 9, 2019
Some of the UK's largest fast-food chains have been selling meat from animals fed on soya beans linked to Brazil's forest fires, campaigners say.
Home to the screaming hairy armadillo: the forest the world forgot
The Guardian | October 5, 2019
The deforestation of the Gran Chaco is dangerously overshadowed by its neighbour, the Amazon
From Environmental Leader to ‘Worst Company in the World’
The New York Times | July 29, 2019
For years, the American agricultural giant Cargill has been on relatively good terms with environmental advocates, praised for agreeing to a landmark moratorium on buying soybeans grown on deforested land in the Amazon rain forest. In recent weeks, though, that relationship has soured over the company’s refusal to agree to a similar moratorium in another environmentally sensitive region of Brazil and, more broadly, over its failure to meet its anti-deforestation targets.
Ethical wood body warns Indonesian palm oil firm over forest clearing
Reuters | July 25, 2019
An international green certification body said Indonesian member firm Korindo Group breached its rules on clearing forests to grow oil palm but would not be expelled after a two-year probe.
Environmentalists put more pressure on Cargill to slow forest-to-farm movement in Brazil
Minneapolis Star Tribune | July 13, 2019
Pressure is mounting on Cargill Inc. to do more for native vegetation in Brazil, South America’s food powerhouse.
World’s forests ‘in emergency room’ after years of losses
Reuters | April 25, 2019
The world lost 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of tropical tree cover last year - the equivalent of 30 football pitches a minute - researchers said on Thursday, warning the planet’s health was at stake.
Leading French soy buying companies rated over disclosure
Feed Navigator | April 19, 2019
US based environmental campaign group, Mighty Earth, along with other NGOs, has ranked some of the leading soy buyers in France for compliance with recently established legislation in that market.
What’s the most eco-friendly chocolate to buy for Easter?
Treehugger | April 18, 2019
The annual Easter Buyer's Guide for Environmental Chocolate, created by environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth, is a useful guideline for conscientious chocolate buyers. It's a set of scorecards for more than 50 chocolate brands, retailers, and suppliers, designed to help people make more ethical and eco-friendly choices.
Western Industrial Farming Is Eating Our Forests and Accelerating Climate Change
Motherboard | April 17, 2019
The dynamics of deforestation are increasingly inseparable from the growing demand for food from consumers in the most developed countries.
Mighty Earth wants to push 2020 candidates on the use of biofuels
Iowa City Press-Citizen | March 31, 2019
In Iowa, approximately 2.7 billion bushels of corn are produced annually. The 43 in-state ethanol refineries demand approximately 1 billion bushels to operate. This is big business for the state. Iowa produces over a quarter of the ethanol in the United States. One advocacy group in the state is asking those candidates to make a potentially risky political stand in a state where corn is king.
Green activists push soya traders on Brazil deforestation
Financial Times | March 4, 2019
Climate activists are pushing the world’s largest agricultural traders to go “beyond nice statements” and enact concrete measures to tackle deforestation caused by soya production in Brazil’s Cerrado region.
Bank of China to review funding of dam in orangutan habitat in Sumatra
Mongabay | March 12, 2019
Bank of China has promised to evaluate a hydroelectric project it is helping fund in Indonesia, which activists say threatens the only known habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan, the rarest great ape species on Earth.
The Real Price of a Chocolate Bar: West Africa’s Rainforests
YaleEnvironment 360 | February 21, 2019
Ivory Coast has lost more than 80 percent of its forests in the last 50 years, mainly to cocoa production. The government has a plan to turn over management of former forest to international chocolate manufacturers: Is it a conservation strategy or a land grab?