Big Farming Is Eating Up More of the Amazon
The world’s voracious appetite for soy now has farmers edging deeper and deeper into the rainforest.
Brazil is the world’s top exporter of soy, making up about half of all the beans traded around the world.
Photographer: Paulo Fridman/Bloomberg
Welcome to the Business of Food newsletter, covering how the world feeds itself in a changing economy and climate. This week, Dayanne Sousa reports on a destructive expansion of Brazil’s farming. Any tips or feedback? Email food czar Agnieszka de Sousa. And if you aren’t yet signed up to receive this newsletter, please do so here.
From the oil in salad dressings to the feed that fattens chickens, soybeans are an invisible but powerful ingredient in the global food supply chain. For Brazil, they’re also the backbone of its agriculture-dependent economy — and a threat to its climate goals.