‘Deforestation Made in Italy. From Latin America to the Bel Paese, a red thread links the fires in the planet’s green lungs to our manufacturing industries. An eye-opening documentary; urgent need to change course. Buycott!
Deforestation Made in Italy
Francesco De Augustinis was able to produce, thanks to the #globalwarmingmadeinitaly project, a valuable reportage on deforestation in the Amazon, Cerrado and Gran Chaco. (1) De Augustinis, an investigative journalist, has followed the red thread that connects the fires-in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, Argentina and environs-to the production and consumption chains. With focus on Europe and Italy in particular.
‘Deforestation Made in Italy‘ plunges us without pity into the largest environmental disaster in recent years. The endless virgin forest is being devoured ‘in herringbone,’ explains a missionary father in the state of Pará, at the heart of the Amazon. That is, the bulldozers start from the main road, the spine precisely, to carve new perpendicular ruts, 30-40 km long, like bones precisely.
Deforestation, business cycle. Phase 1, timber and pastureland
Deforestation follows an identical cliché, well illustrated in this same docufilm by our friend Stefano Liberti, author of Soyalism. Large trees are being cut down, to sell the logs to the wood and furniture industry, where Italy stands out in Europe. Residual scrub vegetation is burned and spaces are occupied with grazing animals. Just enough, to the cattlemen on duty, to claim the right to the lands where they boast of being established.
Livestock farming is the leading cause of deforestation in Latin America. The endless herds of cattle feed the slaughterhouses serving the industrial giants that also serve, among others, large retailers and especially restaurants in Europe. Prominent among them is JBS, US$55 billion in sales, the leading beef producer globally. Who is remembered for the giant Carne Fraca scandal, in 2017.
Traceability of animals, carcasses and hides is far from a given. This is precisely why the European Commission, a few years ago, blocked beef imports from Brazil. But the situation, it seems, has not changed much. Indeed, a researcher from the Imazon organization, interviewed in the documentary, explains the extreme difficulty of tracing the individual plots from which the animals are derived. Which flow to large slaughterhouses through middlemen, accused of systematic falsification of relevant documents.
Deforestation, business cycle. Phase 2, GMO soybean
GMO soy monocultures intervene at a stage after the land subject to recent deforestation is destined for grazing. This consolidates ecocide, with the robbery of water that is diverted for irrigation purposes and the release into the environment of the most toxic pesticides, which have been authorized in bursts under Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency.
The global grain giants-which in recent years had committed to a moratorium on deforestation in the Amazon-avoid their obligations precisely because of the rancheros‘ intermediation. That is, by alleging that the GMO soybean crops were made on land already used for grazing, hiding their recent deforestation carried out by third parties.
Deforestation in our homes
Many Made in Italy and Made in Europe excellences to this day are rooted precisely on deforestation. We refer specifically to:
– lumber, for furniture and prestigious Italian kitchens. European rules require only that the formal regularity of documents be checked. Consumers are still insensitive to the value of voluntary certifications (ex. FSC, Forest Stewardship Council). And the furniture industry, as a result, has little motivation to invest in sustainable procurement,
– pelts. The leather industry, which in turn records the primacy of Made in Italy, in turn proves to be completely irresponsible. Chiara Mastrotto – CEO of the eponymous S.p.A., a global leader in leather tanning – calls it quits. That the coats are derived from cattle grazed on newly deforested land is as indifferent to Italian tanneries as to their customers. And it is no coincidence that the Prada and Natuzzi groups, from high fashion to sofas, have a zero rating in this respect in Global Canopy’s annual Forest 500 report.
Deforestation on our plates
Forests are burning at an increasing rate. In Brazil and Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, but also on our plates. Where.
South American meat, thanks to theagreement with Mercosur will be able to be imported into the EU at zero duty (up to 99 thousand tons of beef and 160 thousand tons of poultry). Where they are found is quickly said:
- restaurants and eateries, diners and canteens. Managers of public establishments and caterers follow the diktat of saving money by failing to tell their users where the meat comes from. Therefore, it is essential and urgent to introduce in Italy the obligation to indicate theorigin of meat in restaurants, as we have been asking useless ministers of agriculture for years,
- ‘meat preparations‘. European industries need only add a few flavorings and a pinch of salt, or a little more, to evade the requirement to indicate the origin of meat. Until the European Commission adopts the #EatORIGINal regulation !
Dairy products and cheeses, meats and sausages. (2) Italian and European farmers continue to use South American GMO soybeans to provide protein for their animals. The historical reason lies in a need to save money, in the face of the inability or unwillingness–of downstream industries and the large-scale retail trade (GDO)–to value ‘GMO free‘ supply chains. But even this reason has failed, as the prices of GMO and non-GMO soybeans are now aligned. (3)
#Buycott! GMO soybeans, palm oil and American meats.
There is no justification for continuing to forage criminal supply chains that sink into burning and bloodshed. Social justice, environmental protection and food sovereignty should animate the choices of all sentient beings. We demand Respect, towards indigenous people and their forests, animal welfare and consumAtors.
The petition by Égalité Onlus and GIFT can be signed by following the link https://www.egalite.org/buycott-petizione/
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) ‘Deforestation Made in Italy,’ a documentary produced by Francesco De Augustinis with contributions from #globalwarmingmadeinitaly, at http://www.deforestazionemadeinitaly.it
(2) See the previous article ‘
Amazon crimes in our PDOs.
‘,
(3) The price lists thus confirm that GMO crops are profitable only for global pesticide and seed monopolists, not also for farmers. See the article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/giornata-stop-pesticidi-la-svolta-necessaria
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
