Statement on 23 companies’ call for end to deforestation to produce meat

Twenty-three major retailers and consumer goods companies, including Tesco and McDonald's, have called on soy and cattle agribusinesses to stop deforestation in Latin America, particularly in Brazil's Cerrado. Mighty Earth argues that with 500 million acres of degraded land available, native ecosystem destruction is unnecessary. The organization urges companies like Cargill and Bunge to expand their Amazon deforestation efforts to other regions and proposes a land-use change monitoring system for soy-growing areas costing between $750,000 and $1,000,000 to establish.

• Twenty-three major meat retailers and consumer goods companies, including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, and McDonald's, have called on global soy and cattle companies to stop the destruction of the Cerrado, a biodiverse savannah forest in Brazil.
• Agricultural expansion does not necessitate the destruction of native ecosystems because there are 500 million acres of heavily degraded land available across Latin America.
• Mighty Earth identifies Cargill and Bunge as major drivers of deforestation across Latin America, noting they have each been responsible for hundreds of thousands of acres of forest loss.
• Mighty Earth has proposed a land-use change monitoring system for soy-growing areas in Latin America with an establishment cost between $750,000 and $1,000,000, with annual costs potentially dropping to half that amount once operational.
• Deforestation driven by companies like Cargill extends beyond Brazil into the Bolivian Amazon, where approximately 10 million acres of forest have been destroyed, as well as into Argentina and Paraguay’s Gran Chaco.

APA

Hurowitz, G. (2017). Statement on 23 companies’ call for end to deforestation to produce meat. Mighty Earth. https://mightyearth.org/article/statement-23-companies-call-end-deforestation-produce-meat/

Chicago

Hurowitz, Glenn. Statement on 23 companies’ call for end to deforestation to produce meat. Mighty Earth, 2017. https://mightyearth.org/article/statement-23-companies-call-end-deforestation-produce-meat/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Hurowitz |first1=Glenn |title=Statement on 23 companies’ call for end to deforestation to produce meat |publisher=Mighty Earth |date=25 October 2017 |url=https://mightyearth.org/article/statement-23-companies-call-end-deforestation-produce-meat/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{hurowitz2017statement, author = {Hurowitz, Glenn}, title = {{Statement on 23 companies’ call for end to deforestation to produce meat}}, publisher = {Mighty Earth}, year = {2017}, month = oct, url = {https://mightyearth.org/article/statement-23-companies-call-end-deforestation-produce-meat/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }