Soya loving vegetarians are destroying the rain forest ! Just under half of the deforestation occurred in Mato Grosso, where trees have been replaced with soya fields. Last year exports of soya, mostly to China and Europe, propelled Brazil to a record trade surplus.
The Amazon rainforest is being destroyed at near record levels, according to new figures released by the Brazilian government.
The environment ministry said 26,000 sq km of forest were chopped down in the 12 months prior to August 2004.
The figure is the second highest on record, 6% higher than the previous 12 months.
Deforestation was worst in the state of Mato Grosso where vast swathes of land have been cleared to grow crops.
The loss of 26,000 sq km means almost a fifth of the entire Amazon has now been chopped down.
More : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4561189.stm
I was working on a campaign related to this earlier this year…