the dutch soy coalition the soy chain: from field to supermarket milieudefensie - friends of the...

The Dutch Soy Coalition

The Soy Chain: From Field to SupermarketMilieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands

European soy based factory farming

Impacts in South America & the EU and possible solutions


The Soy Chain: From Field to Supermarket

• Mostly on factory farms with no land • Low prices for farmers• Focus on cost reduction>• increasing scale, low animal welfare,

fast growing animals• Animal feed with high protein

content >soy

Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands

European soy based factory farming



• Highest protein content• Very cheap because:

• costs of social and environmental impacts not internalised

• no import tariffs• Low transportation costs


Why soy?



The soybean is an annual legume which contains 18% oil, 38% protein and 25% carbohydrates.

What is soy?

Source figure & photo: website 4 & 5 *

What is soy? The soy chain

Impacts soy production

From import to export

Via industry to consumer

Sustainable soy?




What do you think of when you hear the word ‘soy’?

Do you think of..




Do you think of..

Photo © CPT

• forced eviction




Do you think of..

Photo © Brent Millikan

• forced eviction• deforestation





Do you think of..

Source figure 1: website 1 *

• forced eviction• deforestation• slavery





Do you think of..

Photo © Environmental Commons

• forced eviction• deforestation• slavery• genetic manipulation





Do you think of..

Photo © Ulrike Bickel

• forced eviction• deforestation• slavery• genetic manipulation• pollution




Do you think of..

Photo © AIDEnvironment

• forced eviction• deforestation• slavery• genetic manipulation• pollution• erosion





Do you think of..

Photo © AIDEnvironment

• forced eviction• deforestation• slavery• genetic manipulation• pollution• erosion• unemployment





Do you think of..

Source photo: website 2 *

• forced eviction• deforestation• slavery• genetic manipulation• pollution• erosion• unemployment• hunger





The first step in the soy production process is obtaining land to grow soy on. The local farmers and indigenous peoples often do not have formal rights to the land they have been cultivating for generations and the forest in which they hunt and gather fruits.

Forced eviction

Source photo: video Het Groene Goud (The Green Gold) © Manfred van Eyk





Sustainable soy?

Source photo: website 2 *Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands



Forced eviction

Speculators and large landowners take advantage of this situation by evicting small farmers from their land in exchange for a very small fee (often less than 10$ per hectare).

Threats and violence by hired assaultgroups aimed at forcing the local people to accept the small fee are common.

Photo © CPT





Sustainable soy?




Large amounts of agricultural land is needed to meet the growing need for soy. Therefore, a lot of forest and savannah is destroyed in South America.

Deforestation

Photos © AIDEnvironment & Brent Millikan

This expansion is mostly made at the expense of the rich and diverse natural vegetation: rainforest and savannah (cerrado).





Sustainable soy?




The correntão-technique is often used for deforestation: Two enormous bulldozers pull a thick steel chain over the land between them. All vegetation is literally mowed down … and the consequences for the flora and fauna are disastrous. In this manner large areas of forest and savannah disappear … … to make room for soy for Europe and Asia.

Videomaterial: Dahl TV (Keuringsdienst van Waarde)





Sustainable soy?



When the bulldozers finish their work and have destroyed the forest … ... they shove the remains together in oblong shaped heaps. These scrapheaps are then set on fire.

In the Brazilian state Mato Grosso alone, 32.000 illegal forest fires took place in 2004.

Videomaterial: Greenpeace

The destroyed vegetation that remains is either burned or made into charcoal.

Soy originating from this illegally deforested land also ends up in the Dutch market.





Sustainable soy?



The combination of large scale deforestation, erosion and pollution makes restoring the original flora and fauna on the desolated soy fields a very slow – if not impossible – process.

The soil is exhausted and polluted ...

... the local climate is dryer and warmer ...... the soil can not hold on to water ...... and there are virtually no insects and birds to spread the few seeds over the land.

Videomaterial: Manfred van Eyk





Sustainable soy?



Where large scale soy production is introduced, employment rates drop drastically. Whereas traditional agriculture requires 40 workers per 200 hectares, soy production requires only one worker per 200 hectares because of the far-reaching mechani-sation.

Unemployment

The one worker per 200 hectare is often an external employee ...... because the local workers are mostly uneducated former farmers.

Videomaterial: © AIDEnvironment





Sustainable soy?



Because of the loss of farm land and access to forest or savannah, local people have less possibilities to grow their own food. Possibilities for hunting and fishing are also declining. Consequently, available food becomes less diverse and an increasing number of people go hungry.

Hunger

Source photo: video Het Groene Goud (The Green Gold) © Manfred van Eyk





Sustainable soy?



The Soy Chain: From Field to Supermarket Source photo: website 11 *

No land, no work, but hunger …

Driven by hunger and in search of a job, many small farmers move to big cities, where they end up in slums.





Sustainable soy?



In 2005 the EU imported

37 million tons of soy

This is equivalent to a 15,000 km lineup of trucks loaded with soy.

Photos © AIDEnvironment





Sustainable soy?




This soy mainly originates from South America:This soy mainly originates from South America:

Source photo: website 6a *

• 56% from Brazil;• 33% from Argentinia;• 6% from the US;• 3% from Paraguay and Bolivia;• 2% from other countries.





Sustainable soy?




– 87% is soybean meal - 23% of global soymeal consumption

Source photo: website 6a *Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands



Source photo: website 6a *Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth NetherlandsMilieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands



Source photo: website 6a *Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth NetherlandsMilieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands

– 6 NW-European countries account for almost 50% of consumption

– Denmark (340), Netherlands (221) and Belgium (120) have highest kg per capita consumption.



Soy and the problems of intensive livestock production

Photo © Milieudefensie

• Cheap soy is the quiet driving force behind intensive livestock production;

• Soy contains many proteins which make animals grow quickly:

• … for example from egg to 2,5 kilo slaughter weight in 6 weeks;





Sustainable soy?

No intensive livestock production without cheap animal feed!




The hidden costs of ‘cut-price meat’:

• Livestock production annually produces 67 billion kilo of manure, which causes severe pollution of soil, air and water;

Photos © Michiel Wijnberg & Milieudefensie





Sustainable soy?








• Annually at least 1,75 billion euro of costs are transferred to society;

Photo © Hollandse Hoogte





Sustainable soy?








• Annually at least 1,75 billion euro of costs are transferred to society;

• Loss of biodiversity, odour nuisance, climate change, subsidies, government subsidised reorganisation, etc. are not included here.





Sustainable soy?






“We import animal feed, export pigs and keep the mess here. That

system stuck”.

Cees Veerman, Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality





Sustainable soy?




• Reduce consumption of animal products in Northern countries

• Substitute soy in European animal feed with locally grown protein crops;

• No EU subsidies or incentives for the use of soy bean oil as biofuel;

• Sustainable soy???


Solutions?

the dutch soy coalition the soy chain: from field to supermarket milieudefensie - friends of the...

Documents

impacts of soy

word soy

dutch soy coalition

earth netherlands european

consumer sustainable

earth netherlands slide

factory farming slide

environmental impacts