UK Clothing And Shoe Brands Driving Amazon Destruction
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After a three-year, undercover investigation by Greenpeace, it’s been discovered that Brazil’s booming cattle industry – which is the single biggest cause of deforestation in the world – is linked to some of Britain’s biggest brands and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
In addition, the Brazilian government has offered billions of dollars in loans to support the expansion of the cattle industry, which undermines Brazil’s claims to be reducing deforestation, and jeopardises international efforts to protect the Amazon.
Slaughtering the Amazon
The new Greenpeace report, entitled “Slaughtering the Amazon”, tracks beef and leather products on their journey from farms involved in illegal deforestation and in some cases slavery, via giant processing facilities to the supply chains of global brands such as, Tesco, Adidas / Reebok, Nike, Clark’s, BMW, Carrefour, Eurostar, Ford, Honda, Gucci, IKEA, Kraft, and Wal-Mart.
Destruction of the Amazon
Reacting to the report, Greenpeace forest campaigner Sarah Shoraka said:
“Running shoes, handbags and ready meals aren’t normally associated with rainforest destruction and climate change, but we’ve found a smoking gun. This new evidence shows how UK companies are driving the destruction of the Amazon by buying beef and leather products from unscrupulous suppliers in Brazil. These products are ending up on our shelves.”
What about you? Will this change your shopping habits in the future, or does information like this lead to more confusion and apathy?
4 Comments
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Sad that this is still happening… surely there are other places to raise cattle?
-Jack
Hello Jack, yes it’s sad, but raising awareness can help to bring forward change. Let’s hope Greenpeace manage to campaign for significant change and in the meantime, we, as consumers, can use this information to vote with our money.
The problem with raising cattle is… they just require so much land to produce so little food. Even though I find eating meat to be a bit… unethical? It’s still not a very smart way to use the land. We lose thousands and thousands of acres just so people can eat their hamburgers, steaks, and hotdogs, when we could be getting so much more for that.
It’s like making a really bad trade with somebody… giving them all your land, and only getting a few hamburgers in return. Had we used those acres for harvesting vegetables and fruits, we could have gotten so much more…
This is just one of those things I’m really passionate about, and it makes me both angry and upset to see us destroying ourselves all for the sake of our taste buds. (Or what we find fashionable for that matter)
@Travis: Travis, you need to write about this (if you haven’t done so already); this is clearly a ‘soapbox’ issue for you – why not channel those feelings into a creative piece of writing. It will raise awareness for other people too, so it’s a win-win