Thursday May 22, 2008, 4:02 am
How many of these Giants think that they can control all the farmers on this world! And believe that they can get away with this..since politicians are on the pay roll of these companies they will help these companies!

Thursday May 22, 2008, 4:51 am
True. We need to change that!

Thursday May 22, 2008, 5:45 am
Thanks, Hans and Elena, for your comments. I think we don't stand much of a chance against the power of such a corporation ! Environmental justice and food safety are a very long struggle away.

I've just been reading an article on ENN, environmental news network, that says "Loggers, shadowy real estate companies and squatters account for most of the illegal deforestation in the region": they got this straight from Reuters, have not checked,I suspect, whether it's true, and they fail to mention Cargill's soy planations at all !

Does anyone have trustworthy figures about who is causing the greatest deforestation to Brazil's Amazon ?

Have you heard that Brazil's former Environment Minister, Marina Silva, known as a champion of the Amazon "has finally pointed the finger at someone as one of the causes of her resignation last Tuesday: Blairo Maggi, one of the world's biggest soy producers and governor of the Mato Grosso State. (from Treehugger site)

Silva said Maggi has made a fortune depredating the jungle three decades ago, when there were no environmental laws that defended the territory. At the same time, Maggi's State is one of the places where the biggest forestal fights have happened during the last semester; and Mato Grosso and Para States are the leaders in forest clearing.

"The thing is Marina Silva and Blairo Maggi represent two development models for the four million square kilometers of the Amazon, with a population that doesn't overpass the 25 million inhabitants," writes journalist Dario Pignotti for the mentioned newspaper. "The expansion of the green frontier policy was encouraged by the military dictatorship during the end of last century and is still in force not only in Mato Grosso but in other States like Para or Roraima, where the murders of peasants are common," writes Pignotti.

Last month and last week, respectively, two military leaders (Augusto Heleno and Eliezer Monteiro) confronted president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over his Amazon policy, of which Silva was defendant. Heleno was accused for insubordination but was confirmed in his position. Marina Silva is no longer in hers.

AFP says that, Lula "had reproached her reticence to conceive permits that were essential to conclude infrastructure work the government considered crucial." Those were hydroelectric plants the government considered necessary for Brazil's energetic needs. According to Associated Press (AP), there were rumors that President Da Silva wanted to fire the former Ministry, but that "he feared she would gain martyr status"; Since Silva worked with Chico Mendes and was respected for her fierce defense of the Amazon."

The above excerpt is from Treehugger :
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/marina-silva-resignation-brazil-environmental-ministry-causes.php

Resignation of Marina Silva as Brazil's Environment Minister - The Amazon Loses Its Greatest Champion
http://www.care2.com/news/member/597720583/750252

Thursday May 22, 2008, 8:22 am
Hi Jill, agree that it will be difficult to wrestle our food away from these agri corps, the Cargills, the Monsantos, the Dows. I think a person will have to be growing their own somehow at home. These plants will intermingle with everything else, nothing will be natural or normal at all anymore. Noted, another great post from you Jill, thanks!

Saturday May 24, 2008, 9:50 pm
Call 1-800-CARGILL to let them know your thoughts! thx Jill!