How Chicken Feed Is Ruining the Most Biologically-Rich Savannah on Earth

by Zachary Shahan · 2011-05-11 08:00:00 UTC
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The Cerrado, a rare and beautiful ecosystem in Brazil, isn't a place that many people have heard about, despite the fact that it contains approximately 5 percent of life on Earth. That may be why its rapid destruction is falling under the radar.

Largely due to the growth of commercial agriculture (and, in particular, soy.. or 'soya' if you're in the UK), the Cerrado is disappearing faster than the Brazilian Amazon. Soy products from soy grown in this region are consumed by people and livestock around the world.

Think you're not contributing because you don't eat tofu? Well, 80% of soy crop is fed to livestock, and to chickens especially.

A representative of WWF UK filled me recently on the organization's efforts to save the Cerrado, and I learned that there is a lot that can be done to protect this ecosystem. You also can learn more about the Cerrado in the beautiful and interesting hand shadow film below or on WWF.

What can you do about all of this?

For one, you can buy products that do not use Cerrado soy (or were not fed Cerrado soy). Additionally, you can push leading supermarkets to only source soy and sell soy products that don't result from deforestation. WWF UK has created a petition targeting several major supermarket chains in the UK, asking them to discontinue the sale of products related to Cerrato deforestation.

In the last 40 years, the Cerrado has been cut in half by commercial soy farming. The total area of destruction is greater than the UK, Germany, Italy and Portugal combined. Help stop the destruction today by cutting your consumption of Cerrato-based products and signing the petition below. The petition is targeting supermarkets in the UK. If you live elsewhere, consider doing some research about whether your supermarkets stock Cerrado-sourced soy, and starting your own campaign.

Deforestation in the Amazon has been reduced tremendously through similar efforts started by Greenpeace, propelled forward by everyday people, and adopted by large companies like McDonald's, Walmart, Nike, and some leading supermarkets. When such efforts were started, probably few people believed they could make a difference, but they have. I think the same success can be achieved in the Cerrado if we take action. Protect one of the most precious ecosystems in the world by signing WWF UK's petition today.

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Photo Credit: Daniel Zanini H. via flickr

Zachary Shahan has studied society and the environment for years, writes on these issues for a number of blogs, and is now the editor of planetsave.com, ecolocalizer.com, and cleantechnica.com.

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