Zooming in: on the Amazon

"A picture can tell a thousand words" 

...And the case below is no exception. I came across this photograph taken by photojournalist Rodrigo Baleia, the juxtaposition of the soya crop on deforested land next to Amazon rainforest is quite striking. It got me thinking about soya farming, I'd never really thought about its potential for destruction before. My automatic thought in response to soy is veganism. My good friend Ruth and author of mysearchforgreen.blogspot.co.uk would often seek out dairy replacements on her quest to decrease her carbon footprint, soy products often aiding her on this mission. 

The aim of this post is to delve a bit deeper into the Amazon rainforest, but rather than try and tackle it as a whole, I will focus on Brazil, and the case of the soya bean as it seems there's more to the story than just dairy replacement.

Soya Farming in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Although in my tiny world, soya products have only recently seen a rise in popularity, as i've mentioned meat and dairy-free diets are becoming trendy in my corner of London. It appears that the real rise of the soya bean started to take place in the 90's (Barona et al., 2010). Many NGOs, WWF for example, are really trying to raise awareness around soya. It appears to be, directly and indirectly, in so many everyday products. The big players are commercially produced meat products (soy meal is used in animal feed), soy oil can be used as a table oil but is also being used more and more for biodiesel and there exist many other non-food soya-based goods too. 

The growing world-wide demand for soya is one of the most damaging contributors to Amazon deforestation in Brazil. Land-use change is a huge problem with the conversion of rainforest to cropland destroying habitats and needless to say, having huge impacts on biodiversity. However, further to this, Fearnside (2001) raises the issue of destructive development known as the 'dragging effect'. The article details this effect in the context of Brazil:

"The impact of soybeans greatly exceeds the loss of natural areas directly converted to this land use because of the massive infrastructure development needed to provide transportation for harvest and entry of inputs" - P.24.

Local Brazilian populations and economies seem to 'take the hit' when it comes to the destruction associated with the soya industry. 

"Costs include biodiversity loss when natural ecosystems are converted to soybeans, severe impacts to some of the transportation systems, soil erosion, health and environmental effects of agricultural chemicals, expulsion of population that formerly inhabited the areas used for soybeans, lack of food production for local consumption..." P.24

...the list goes on. The global demand for soya is pushing the industry to grow and produce more. The levels of forest clearance for cropland has been monitored through satellite imagery, in 2006, Morton et al. published their findings on Brazilian deforestation. They reported that almost 1/5 of forest loss between 2001 and 2004 in the Brazilian region of Mato Grosso could be attributed to large-scale agriculture. Staggeringly, as world food demand grows, especially for mass-produced meat, the likelihood of a slowing down and decrease in the soya bean industry is extremely unlikely. Recently, the Mighty Earth organisation published a report detailing the devastation the soya industry is causing in many parts of South America.

When I started to write this post, I thought I was going to end up slamming a vegan diet - 'you think you're helping by cutting out dairy, but really you're just making things worse by consuming loads of soy!' would have been my opening line. But in reality, it appears that soy in moderation, sustainably sourced is okay - again it's the mass meat-eaters among us that seem to be perpetuating the problem. Hmm - MORE food for thought then.