You may never have heard of Cargill, but they are the largest privately-owned company in the world. They also happen to be one of the major culprits in the continuing destruction of the Amazon rainforest, driving deforestation to make room for soya plantations. That soya is then shipped out to Europe for animal feed.
To put an end to this, Greenpeace have, over the past few days, repeatedly blocked the operations of US multi-national Cargill, one of the leading culprits in the invasion of soya into the Amazon.
Taking the action at both ends of the soya chain of destruction, Cargill's facilities in Brazil, France and the UK were closed. On Friday, operations were stopped at Cargill's illegally built export facility in Santarém, Brazil, with our ship the MV Arctic Sunrise seized by Brazilian police after rampaging soya farmers boarded the ship and attempted to get at the crew, resulting in three activists being injured.
Monday saw the action move to Europe, with Cargill's UK headquarters being blocked by four tones of soya. Protesters also chained themselves to the main gate, preventing access to the site. Meanwhile in France, operations were halted at one of their major meat processing factories that supplies supermarkets and fast food restaurants around Europe.
Those retailers include many high street names, and we've been campaigning to get McDonald's and KFC to stop using meat fed on Amazon soya but they only represent one end of the chain and it's Cargill that needs to stop trashing the Amazon.
There is no doubt that Cargill are leading the soya invasion. They not only ship the stuff over, they are building the infrastructure needed to transport thousands upon thousands of tonnes of beans through the Amazon basin and into the ports. They have an estimated 13 silos in the Amazon, as well as their illegally built port facility in Santarém.
Cargill have tried to deny that a problem exists, claiming our report Eating Up the Amazon was based on "oversimplification and distortion". But that just won't wash and they have failed to challenge the key findings of the report, namely that the Amazon soya industry is knee-deep in environmental destruction, slavery and land-grabbing and, as the biggest player in town, Cargill is implicated in all of these.
And they clearly don't like what we're saying. Over the past two weeks, Greenpeace campaigners in and around Santarém have met with intimidation, threats and violence from soya farmers - even local journalists were attacked simply for being there. During the blockade of Cargill's dodgy port facility, the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise was rammed repeatedly by a tug while Cargill employees tried to cut the anchor and a Greenpeace photographer was injured by a firework thrown by one of the farmers.
Despite their grip on the Amazon, Cargill can be persuaded to stop driving the deforestation. If their clients, such as McDonald's and KFC, demand that they adopt sound environmental and socially responsible principles, they will no choice but to meet our demands. Cargill themselves have admitted to customers that using only non-Amazon (and non-GM) soya can be done.
But who do the fast food chains listen to? Their customers, that's who. So use your consumer power to tell them that if they don't stop buying their meat from companies who care a hill of beans for the Amazon rainforest, then you'll stop buying their food.
