Christian Science Monitor: Amazon Farmers Grow Grain and Save the Forest
McDonald's, Cargill, and The Nature Conservancy create a 'responsible' soy program.
Santarem, Brazil - You might call it the greening of Chicken McNuggets.
At first glance, there seems little common ground between fast-food giant McDonald's, US commodities multinational Cargill, and The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group.
But here in the Brazilian Amazon, all three are working together to help soy farmers produce grains without cutting down the forest.
In fact, under the Responsible Soy Project, farmers in two municipalities in the northern Amazon can only sell soy to Cargill if they promise to plant trees on denuded land. McDonald's, which buys chicken fed with Brazilian soy, set that condition after pressure from environmental groups and consumers. The Nature Conservancy, with $390,000 from Cargill, assists all sides and oversees compliance.
It is, conservationists say, a potential model for sustainable development not just in the Amazon but all over Brazil, home to the world's largest rain forest. ...
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