Vegetarians killing the Rain Forests

[SevenSeasJim]

This is from CBC's "The Current" this morning. The opening satire is fricken halarious.

[color:green]It's Tuesday, May 31st.

And environmentalists are having second thoughts about an old ally. It turns out that farming soy beans, the main ingredient in tofu, may be wiping out the Amazon as fast as cattle ranching.

Currently, according to unnamed sources, the bad news doesn't end there. Apparently solar panels are draining the sun. Attending Phish concerts decreases fertility. And Birkenstocks, they cause cancer.

This is The Current.

The Current: Part 2

Soy Beans - Greenpeace

It's been called the "Magic Bean" -- hailed by nutritionists as a wonderfood---it's rich in protein and apparently cuts the risks of all kinds of diseases. We're talking about the soy bean. And we’re afraid we’ve got some bad news about a food that's been called "nature's medicine".

Precisely because of these many health claims, there has been a dramatic rise in soy consumption around the world. And while soy bean producers and traders have been rubbing their hands gleefully, environmentalists are worried about the crop's popularity--especially in Brazil. Because as long as soy remains lucrative, more saws will continue clear bigger swaths of the Amazon rainforest.

Environmental group Greenpeace has been loudly criticizing the Brazilian government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It says President Lula should be restricting soy plantations to areas that are already cleared. On the line from Brazil we were joined by Paulo Adario. He works for Greenpeace and is the Co-ordinator for the Amazon Project. We reached him in Manaus, the capital of the Amazon state in Brazil.

Soy King Farmer

Brazil is the second biggest soy bean exporter in the world. And its biggest soy bean producer is a Brazilian company called Amaggi Group, owned by a man named Blairo Maggi--also known in Brazil as the "King of Soy".

But the king is also the Governor of Mato Grosso, a state responsible for half of the Amazon deforestation in 2003 and 2004. Last week we arranged for an interview with the governor, but as of this morning we were still unable to reach him. His company representatives also refuse to be interviewed on the subject.

We can tell you this. The governor is on the record as denying that soy production leads to the rainforest's destruction. In an interview he gave Reuters news service last week, he said he encourages sustainable farming, claiming almost half of the rainforest cut down in his state last year was legal and that 95 percent of the illegal loggers had been fined. He also said it's been 10 years since his own company actively cleared land for soy production.

Ethical Eating

News that soy production in Brazil encroaches on the Amazon rainforest makes shopping even more challenging for ethically conscious consumers. The other day we visited a vegan cafe called Radical Roots on the University of Toronto campus. The cafe prides itself on serving fair trade, fair labour and organic, animal-free meals. We aired what some patrons had to say about the downside to soy---a ubiquitous food in a place like this.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the grocery aisle, along comes this latest dilemma. To talk about the challenges of ethical consumption, and how to make good choices about food that all seems to be surrounded by a bit of bad karma, we were joined by Lori Stahlbrand in our Toronto studio. She is a consultant to the Food Policy Council and co-author of "Real Food For a Change".

[Pablo Sanchez]

I thought that it was hilarious in a real bad way. They tried to play it like

"you thought you were healthy and enviromentally friendly but you're actually destroying the rainforest hahahaha" when the greenpeace dude went on to say that 80% of the soy was going to cattle feed!!

story angle ruined. once again eating beef is destroying the rainforest.

[PhishyK]

You called it, Pablo.

Nice intro, CBC, but you're misleading the public. Jerks.

[Lazlo]

I just think it's about time that vegetarians started killing something.

[Calamity Jane]

you're first on my list!