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Food Giants Seek Ban on Soy From Deforested Brazil Region

Traders asked to ban soy from Cerrado cleared areas from 2020
Brazil soy group refuses a cut-off date for zero deforestation

A Soy Harvest As Crop Futures Fall On Brazil Real Crash And Virus Woes — Photographer: Patricia Monteiro/Bloomberg

By

Thomas Buckley,

Agnieszka de Sousa, and

Tatiana Freitas

December 15, 2020, 10:27 AM UTCUpdated onDecember 15, 2020, 10:54 PM UTC

Some of the world’s largest food companies and grocers urged commodity suppliers including Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Co. to stop trading soybeans associated with deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado region, a savanna that is a hive of biodiversity and one of the country’s most important carbon sinks.

Nestle SA, Unilever, McDonald’s Corp., Walmart Inc., Tesco Plc and other consumer-goods companies demanded in a letter that the traders refuse to trade soy from deforested regions of the Cerrado starting next year.