Rainforest Action Network

Biofuels made from recycled waste products differ greatly from agrifuels – agribusinesses’ industrial alternative. To meet increasing demand for these fuels, U.S. agribusinesses are destroying pristine ecosystems to make way for palm and soy plantations. Clearing the rainforest furthers global warming by releasing massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and threatens to increase world hunger by diverting crops from food. Don’t support biofuels that come from newly cleared rainforests.

• Getting real about biofuels
• Agribusiness in the Rainforest: Stories from Frontline Communities

The greatest threat to global rainforests is the rapid proliferation of soy and palm oil plantations owned by U.S. agribusinesses like ADM, Bunge and Cargill. RAN is calling on agribusinesses to protect these vital ecosystems by stopping industrial agrisprawl.

• The Protect-an-Acre program
• Growing Disaster: How Agribusiness Expansion into Rainforests is Threatening the Climate
• Case Study: Tanjung Puting National Park
• Case Study: Contamination of the Xingu Indigenous Reserve

When U.S. agribusinesses clear-cut rainforests to make way for industrial soy and palm plantations, they don’t just destroy ecosystems—they destroy the communities that rely on them. RAN partners with local and Indigenous groups, drawing on their expertise and empowering them to successfully safeguard their land from industrial exploitation.

• The Protect-an-Acre program
• Agribusiness in the Rainforest: Stories from Frontline Communities
• Agribusiness Impacts on Indigenous Communities
• Case Study: Kararata Mini Estates
• Case Study: Landak Land Grab
• Case Study: Contamination of the Xingu Indigenous Reserve

The massive soy and palm plantations U.S. agribusinesses are establishing in rainforests around the world squelch nearby subsistence farming and deprive local and Indigenous farmers of their traditional means of feeding themselves. Industrial farming does far more damage to the environment than small-scale family farming; it also displaces communities and corrodes traditional cultures. Support small-scale family farming in your purchases.

• Agribusiness in the Rainforest: Stories from Frontline Communities
• People’s Rights vs. Agribusiness: the Case of Food Sovereignty
• Case Study: Kararata Mini Estates
• Report: Towards a Green Food System (Grassroots International)

Factory farms squelch subsistence farming in nearby areas, leaving local people with no way to earn a living except by working on corporate-run plantations. Workers are often forced into “debt peonage,” which is essentially modern-day slavery. They are also exposed to the toxic chemicals that are an essential part of factory farming. RAN participates in roundtable discussions to ensure fair and safe conditions for these workers.

• Hostile Harvest: U.S. Agribusinesses and Labor Rights Abuses
• Agribusiness Impacts on Indigenous Communities
• Case Study: Kararata Mini Estates