Responsible soy = corporate greenwash
> Press Release:
>
> Over 200 organisations from North and South condemn Roundtable for Responsible Soy as 'corporate greenwash'
>
> 22nd April, For immediate release
>
> Tomorrow, 23rd April, the Third Roundtable for Responsible Soy Conference will be opening in Buenos Aires, a city currently shrouded in smoke from nearly 300 fires linked to soya expansion. The Argentinean Interior Minister has confirmed that most of the fires are the direct result of high soya prices. Argentina's current fires come just six months after the worst ever fires in Paraguay, which were also linked to soya expansion, and which extended into northern Argentina, Bolivia and southern Brazil. Earlier this year, the Brazilian government confirmed a significant increase in fires and deforestation in the Amazon basin, also linked to high soya prices.
>
> The civil society declaration against the Third Roundtable for Responsible Soy (RTRS) warns "agribusiness is responsible for the devastation of our soils, deforestation, contamination of rivers and aquifers, biodiversity loss, and the plunder the natural and cultural heritage which once supported our communities". It stresses that the soya industry is inherently unsustainable and warns that that any certification of 'sustainable soya' will be nothing other than 'corporate greenwash'. Other coalitions, including the Global Forest Coalition and Friends of the Earth International, have also rejected the process of the Roundtable for Responsible Soya. Several UK companies, including Greenergy International, BP, Marks and Spencer and Somerfield are members of the RTRS.
>
> Jorge Rulli of the Argentinean Grupo de Reflexion Rural states: "The smoke in from the fires is choking Buenos Aires and creating a sense of 'apocalypse now' suitable for the opening of the Roundtable for Responsible Soy. With the soybean prices at $500 per ton, the oilseed is like a bulldozer which takes away everything: Territories preserved for their value for tourism, livestock, thousands of beehives. Everything is burning in the great fire of the new gods of the global market. Once again, the smoke in Buenos Aires demonstrates that soya monocultures are responsible for death, fires and devastation."
>
> Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch, UK, warns: "The RTRS plans to certify 'sustainable soya' is a dangerous attempt at making the expansion of soya, including for biofuels, politically acceptable. The British government and the European Union are using such roundtables in order to push through policies which will greatly expand the biofuel industry and thus Europe's demand for soya. Instead of greenwash, we need real demand reduction for soya, which means an EU moratorium on agrofuels and policies which end Europe's unsustainable consumption rates of meat and dairy and our reliance on soya imports for animal feed. We call on those NGOs which have joined the RTRS to resign their membership."
>
> In Paraguay, some 9,000 rural households a year are being displaced by soya, and some 200,000 rural families in Argentina have already lost their land for the same reasons, and many of them have been violently evicted. Soya monocultures, many of them GM soya, are linked to high food prices and the loss of food sovereignty, to high agrochemical use which causes serious health impacts, including deaths, biodiversity losses, high greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of water and soil. They are also linked to severe soil erosion and freshwater depletion which is threatening to turn some of the world's most fertile land into desert.
>
> Contact:
>
> UK: Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch +44 (0)1224-324797 or +44 (0)7925 364186
>
> Argentina: rtierra@infovia.com.ar, Tel. +54 220 4773 545
>
> Paraguay: javierarulli@yahoo.com, Tel.+59521 451217
>
> Notes:
>
> 1. For a copy of the declaration against the Third Roundtable for Responsible Soy, and for a list of signatories, see:
> http://www.lasojamata.org/node/110 .
>
> 2. The global RTRS Conference is entitled "Responsible Soy: Food, Feed and Fuel to a Future world". Members include soy agribusiness groups, biofuel and oil companies, finance institutes and a number of NGOs, including WWF and Conservation International. For a list of members, and official documents of the RTRS, see http://www.responsiblesoy.org/ .
>
> 3. A satellite image of the fires in Argentina, taken on 18th April, can be found at
> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14789&src=map
>
>
> 4. For a copy of the Global Forest Coalition's press release about the RTRS, see http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/connections.php?ID=109 .
>
> 5. For more information about the impacts of soya monocultures, see
> www.lasojamata.org/ .
>
>
> Over 200 organisations from North and South condemn Roundtable for Responsible Soy as 'corporate greenwash'
>
> 22nd April, For immediate release
>
> Tomorrow, 23rd April, the Third Roundtable for Responsible Soy Conference will be opening in Buenos Aires, a city currently shrouded in smoke from nearly 300 fires linked to soya expansion. The Argentinean Interior Minister has confirmed that most of the fires are the direct result of high soya prices. Argentina's current fires come just six months after the worst ever fires in Paraguay, which were also linked to soya expansion, and which extended into northern Argentina, Bolivia and southern Brazil. Earlier this year, the Brazilian government confirmed a significant increase in fires and deforestation in the Amazon basin, also linked to high soya prices.
>
> The civil society declaration against the Third Roundtable for Responsible Soy (RTRS) warns "agribusiness is responsible for the devastation of our soils, deforestation, contamination of rivers and aquifers, biodiversity loss, and the plunder the natural and cultural heritage which once supported our communities". It stresses that the soya industry is inherently unsustainable and warns that that any certification of 'sustainable soya' will be nothing other than 'corporate greenwash'. Other coalitions, including the Global Forest Coalition and Friends of the Earth International, have also rejected the process of the Roundtable for Responsible Soya. Several UK companies, including Greenergy International, BP, Marks and Spencer and Somerfield are members of the RTRS.
>
> Jorge Rulli of the Argentinean Grupo de Reflexion Rural states: "The smoke in from the fires is choking Buenos Aires and creating a sense of 'apocalypse now' suitable for the opening of the Roundtable for Responsible Soy. With the soybean prices at $500 per ton, the oilseed is like a bulldozer which takes away everything: Territories preserved for their value for tourism, livestock, thousands of beehives. Everything is burning in the great fire of the new gods of the global market. Once again, the smoke in Buenos Aires demonstrates that soya monocultures are responsible for death, fires and devastation."
>
> Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch, UK, warns: "The RTRS plans to certify 'sustainable soya' is a dangerous attempt at making the expansion of soya, including for biofuels, politically acceptable. The British government and the European Union are using such roundtables in order to push through policies which will greatly expand the biofuel industry and thus Europe's demand for soya. Instead of greenwash, we need real demand reduction for soya, which means an EU moratorium on agrofuels and policies which end Europe's unsustainable consumption rates of meat and dairy and our reliance on soya imports for animal feed. We call on those NGOs which have joined the RTRS to resign their membership."
>
> In Paraguay, some 9,000 rural households a year are being displaced by soya, and some 200,000 rural families in Argentina have already lost their land for the same reasons, and many of them have been violently evicted. Soya monocultures, many of them GM soya, are linked to high food prices and the loss of food sovereignty, to high agrochemical use which causes serious health impacts, including deaths, biodiversity losses, high greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of water and soil. They are also linked to severe soil erosion and freshwater depletion which is threatening to turn some of the world's most fertile land into desert.
>
> Contact:
>
> UK: Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch +44 (0)1224-324797 or +44 (0)7925 364186
>
> Argentina: rtierra@infovia.com.ar, Tel. +54 220 4773 545
>
> Paraguay: javierarulli@yahoo.com, Tel.+59521 451217
>
> Notes:
>
> 1. For a copy of the declaration against the Third Roundtable for Responsible Soy, and for a list of signatories, see:
> http://www.lasojamata.org/node/110 .
>
> 2. The global RTRS Conference is entitled "Responsible Soy: Food, Feed and Fuel to a Future world". Members include soy agribusiness groups, biofuel and oil companies, finance institutes and a number of NGOs, including WWF and Conservation International. For a list of members, and official documents of the RTRS, see http://www.responsiblesoy.org/ .
>
> 3. A satellite image of the fires in Argentina, taken on 18th April, can be found at
> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14789&src=map
>
>
> 4. For a copy of the Global Forest Coalition's press release about the RTRS, see http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/connections.php?ID=109 .
>
> 5. For more information about the impacts of soya monocultures, see
> www.lasojamata.org/ .
>
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