Brazil Abandons Soy Moratorium, Opening Area The Size Of Portugal To New Deforestation
One of the key agreements for Amazon rainforest protection – the soy moratorium – has been suspended by Brazilian authorities, potentially opening up an area the size of Portugal to destruction by farmers. Coming less than three months before Brazil hosts the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, the news has shocked conservation groups, who say it is now more important than ever that consumers, supermarkets and traders stand up against Brazilian agribusiness groups that are using their growing political power to reverse past environmental gains.
Brazil is the world’s biggest soya bean exporter. The legume, used largely for animal and fish feed, is one of the most widely grown crops in Brazil, and posed a huge deforestation threat to the Amazon rainforest until stakeholders voluntarily agreed to impose a moratorium and no longer source it from the region in 2006. The voluntary agreement brought together farmers, environmentalists and international food companies such as Cargill and McDonald’s, and determined that any detection of soya beans planted on areas deforested after 2008 would result in the farm being blocked from supply chains, regardless of whether the land clearance was legal in Brazil.
In the 19 years since, the moratorium has been hailed as a conservation success story that has improved the reputation of global brands, enabled soy production to expand significantly without Amazon destruction and prevented an estimated 17,000 sq km of deforestation.
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olitically, the timing could not be more embarrassing for the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In November, Brazil will stage the first climate conference to be held in the Amazon, which the hosts had hoped would be a showcase for the gains it has made in reducing deforestation. But in the Brazilian congress, the dominant agribusiness lobby has passed legislation that undermines indigenous land demarcation and the environmental licensing system, a step that conservation groups have described as the biggest setback in 40 years. The new ruling on the soy moratorium adds to the retreat.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/21/brazil-authorities-suspend-key-amazon-rainforest-protection-measure
Ed. Fine. Burn, choke, die. Fuck you, Brazil.
= new reply since forum marked as read
So a bigger setback than the Bolsanaro years
Man when it comes to environmental destruction it’s time to call out politicians lie these who use the cover of someone being as awful as Bolsanaro to get away with being relatively green when they pull shit like this.
I thought with Bolsanaro gone it would get better but greens have to fight this shit constantly.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/brazil-regulator-suspends-soy-moratorium-orders-probe-exporters-2025-08-18/
By Ana Mano
August 19, 2025
SAO PAULO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Brazil's competition authority CADE has given grain traders in the world's largest soybean exporter 10 days to suspend a program called "soy moratorium" or face hefty fines, in a ruling seen by Reuters on Monday.
The two-decade-old private pact seeks to protect the Amazon rainforest, by barring soybean traders from buying from farmers who cleared land there after July 2008, but it represents a potential breach of Brazilian competition law.
In his signed decision, the agency's general superintendent Alexandre Barreto de Souza called for a full investigation into the signatories of the voluntary corporate program in which companies share commercially sensitive information.
Firms wishing to apply soy moratorium criteria to buy soybeans grown in the Amazon "must do so independently and in accordance with national legislation," he wrote.
However, environmental group Greenpeace said the ruling was the result of pressure from the farm lobby, compromising nearly two decades of progress.
"By suspending the moratorium, CADE not only encourages deforestation but also silences consumers' right to choose products that do not contribute to the devastation of the Amazon," it said in a statement after the ruling was issued.
The attacks on the pact "are political and favor precisely those who profit most from the destruction of the Amazon," it added.
CADE's decision to suspend the program was "historic", said farmer group Aprosoja Mato Grosso.
"For years, a private agreement without legal support has been imposing unfair trade barriers on farmers ... preventing the sale of crops grown in regular and licensed areas," it said in a statement.
That’s so sleazy..again this is how these so-called farmer’s groups etc (very wealthy people who astroturf giving the impression of being for the poor farmer) basically undermine environmental laws with the help of politicians “left” or right, perverting notions like anti-monopoly and regulation to favor more destruction.
Without reading the fine print the world is complex enough that corrupt entities can hide the undermining of environmental or labor laws in using the language of ..any concept that is about anything other than self serving shit, self dealing etc.
It makes me furious when you can pull shit like this from the “left” and call it people friendly.
