Coverage on deforestation and soya chicken feed

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Coverage on deforestation and soya chicken feed

Written by Defra Press Office

TROPICAL RAINFOREST. WESTERN CONGO BASIN. MOIST FOREST, GABON


There is coverage including in the Guardian and ITV online of an investigation including by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Greenpeace reporting deforestation is happening in Brazil to make way for soybeans grown for chicken feed.

Coverage reports this chicken is then ending up on the shelves of Britain’s leading supermarkets and fast-food outlets.

We depend on the natural world around us: rainforests cool the planet, provide clean air and water, and are a haven for some of the most endangered species on Earth – and so protecting them is a core priority for government.

On 11 November we announced world-leading new measures to protect forests and other natural areas would be introduced through the landmark Environment Bill.

Our new law will require larger businesses in the UK to make sure that the ‘forest risk’ commodities they use have been produced legally. Forest risk commodities are those commodities whose rapid expansion is associated with wide-scale deforestation, often in contravention of local laws, such as beef and leather, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and soya.

It will be illegal for these businesses to use these commodities where they have not been produced in accordance with relevant local laws. Businesses would be required to undertake a due diligence exercise. This would involve identifying and obtaining information across the supply chains of the forest risk commodities that they use, assessing the risk that relevant laws were not complied with during the production of those commodities, and mitigating that risk. They will also be required to publish information about their due diligence exercise annually. Businesses that do not comply with these requirements may be subject to fines.

A Defra spokesperson said:

We have introduced legislation that would make it a requirement for larger businesses to undertake due diligence on their supply chains where there is a risk they could be contributing to illegal deforestation. This is just one piece of a much larger package of measures that we are putting in place to tackle illegal deforestation.

While the UK is a relatively small consumer of commodities such as soya, businesses must take greater responsibility for ensuring the resilience, traceability and sustainability of their supply chains.

These actions support our work making nature one of the main themes for the UK’s COP26 Presidency to help increase investment in nature-based solutions and tackle the drivers of nature loss such as deforestation.

Last month, nearly 80 countries signed the Leader’s Pledge for Nature, committing to reverse the destruction of nature by 2030. The UK played a key role in crafting the pledge, and as hosts of the next and all important UN Climate Conference.

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Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
I gave this link to Tom Clarke (who broke this story on ITV) when he visited us to film about our soya free chickens. The interview was edited down to very little so didn't really make any sense of what we're doing here other than to say its possible to rear broilers without soya.
I told him its no good just addressing the use of soya in livestock if human consumption of it is growing. He said he would look in to it.
I also told him I genuinely believe the anti meat drive will actually be counter productive to the fight against climate change which he seemed very interested in.

Yes, there are things we can do as farmers to help the environment, such as responsible use and sourcing of feedstuffs, and greater reliance on our strength of grass production in this country, but let's not let the baby get thrown out with the bathwater.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
As further above but its grown in other places than reclaimed rainforest ,
Just to note , just for the record , Soya is not the villain (y)

It's a brilliant food source.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
fascinating article, I had a feeling that getting my fat portion of my diet from animals was a better idea than palm & soya oil, but I had never seen it written before, this message should be getting out there to counter all this vegan stuff being parroted by the media all the time.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Banning gm imports won’t necessarily stop anything. Takes more management but it’s not hard to grow Non gm soybeans. They would have it figured out pretty quick.
My feed rep told me (can't vouch for accuracy of this statement) that non gm soy was more likely to be grown on virgin rainforest land because of the lack of disease challenge. 🤔
 

Chris F

Staff Member
Media
Location
Hammerwich
My feed rep told me (can't vouch for accuracy of this statement) that non gm soy was more likely to be grown on virgin rainforest land because of the lack of disease challenge. 🤔

Could be, for first season, but 95% plus of Soy out of South America is gmo.

Stat- Brazil and Argentina are the two largest grain growers in Latin America. In both countries, their use of GMO seeds for those two crops (soy and maize) is between 90-96%
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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