Rainforest Action Network

BUENOS AIRES – Representatives from several campesino, social justice and environmental groups, including Rainforest Action Network (RAN), protested the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) today. Twenty people attempted to enter the meeting, but were forced to remain in the building lobby. They were there to denounce the Roundtable’s exclusive membership of major industry players—including U.S. agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge and Cargill—and large international NGOs and its systematic exclusion of campesino and Indigenous voices. The protestors contend that the Roundtable fails to address the unsustainability of industrial soy production—which is expanding dramatically in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay—and its effects on campesino and Indigenous communities.

Today’s protest underscores an open call issued last week by 156 groups demanding that the large NGOs currently participating in the RTRS resign. A statement by Friends of the Earth International declared that the Roundtable “frustrates real solutions.” The RTRS does not regulate the use of genetically engineered soy or chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Nor does it address the contentious land-use problems fostered by soy production. Industrial soy production prompts land-clearing in globally significant ecosystems such as the Amazon and the adjacent Cerrado—where it has become a leading cause of deforestation—and has led to the violent eviction of small farmers and Indigenous communities from their traditional lands.

“I’ve visited so-called ‘responsible’ soy plantations,” said Andrea Samulon of Rainforest Action Network. “The plantations still dump dangerous agrotoxins into the soil and water, and they still stand on land that was once healthy forest. They still displace communities and leave people with little to eat. The RTRS has simply failed to end the environmental and human rights abuses perpetrated by soy producers, including U.S. corporations ADM, Bunge and Cargill.”

“We wanted to participate in this event to show that the idea of responsible soy isn’t viable for small rural farmers,” said Delio Giménez of Association of Farmers of Alto Paraná (ASAGRAPA), Paraguay. “The development model of agribusiness is not compatible with small farmer production. ‘Responsible soy’ will be responsible for much more misery in Latin America.”

“Now is the time to defend the land and food sovereignty of our people,” said Pedro Pablo Caballero, a representative of the Oñondivepa community in the department of San Pedro. Deforestation is happening at an alarming rate in our country, and if we continue at this pace, five years from now, our forests in Paraguay will be gone and the impacts on the environment will be severe.”

Rainforest Action Network is pushing U.S. agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge and Cargill to stop clearing forests and evicting Indigenous and local communities to accommodate their international soy and palm oil operations. The companies fund 60 percent of soy production in Brazil and have major operations in Paraguay and Argentina as well.

For more information on the NGO declaration against the RTRS go to www.lasojamata.org.