Nationwide protests as fast food giant is linked to Amazon destruction
McDonald's outlets across Britain have been invaded by seven-foot-tall chickens this morning after a new report revealed the role played by the fast food giant in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Overnight, scores of restaurants from Edinburgh to Southampton were fly-posted with images of a chainsaw-wielding Ronald McDonald, while outlets in seven major cities are now occupied by the chickens, which have chained themselves to chairs.
The action comes as Greenpeace releases the results of a year long global undercover investigation into the links between high street brands and logging in the Amazon rainforest. Using satellite images, aerial surveillance, previously unreleased government documents and on-the-ground undercover monitoring, campaigners have for the first time been able to track the trade in soya beans from the Amazon rainforest to the Chicken McNuggets eaten in restaurants across Europe.
More than a hundred restaurant windows were covered with Ronald McDonald chainsaw-wielding fly-posters before sunrise by roving teams in London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Southampton. The chickens entered city centre stores at 7am as the breakfast rush began, using handcuffs to lock themselves to fixtures. A dozen huge chickens are in the McDonald's flagship store in Leicester Square holding protest placards that say: 'WE'RE TRASHIN' IT'. The protests mark the start of a major new international campaign against the beleaguered food giant.
The Greenpeace investigation shows how soya is transported from the Amazon to an illegally built port facility in the town of Santarem - owned by US company Cargill - before being shipped to Europe to be fed to animals for McDonald's meat. Greenpeace investigators tracked shipments from Santarem to Liverpool, then followed and photographed Brazilian soya cargoes as they were delivered to chicken farms that supply McDonald's across Europe.
Greenpeace forest campaigner Pat Venditti said: "McDonald's is fuelling a trade that's trashing the Amazon. Rainforest is being illegally cleared to make way for soya farms to feed animals in Europe. Our investigation clearly links that deforestation to McDonald's. Every time you buy a Chicken McNugget you could be taking a bite out of the Amazon."
The investigation, detailed today in a new report EATING UP THE AMAZON, reveals that official Brazilian government documents show some of the farms supplying Cargill have used slaves to clear the forest for agriculture.
Greenpeace has documentary evidence that proves the following:
US company Cargill, which owns the illegal export terminal at Santarem, is supplied by farms operating on rainforest land that has been illegally cleared for soya production.
The soya from Amazon farms is exported from Santarem to Europe, along with non-Amazon soya. Cargill exported over 220,000 tonnes of Brazilian soya from Santarem to Liverpool from March 2005 to February 2006.
Greenpeace has tracked Santarem soya from Cargill's Liverpool facility to Sun Valley poultry farm in Hereford. Sun Valley is owned by Cargill. Senior Sun Valley staff told Greenpeace 25% of their chicken feed comes from Cargill's Liverpool facility.
Sun Valley then supplies chicken from these farms to McDonald's across the UK and Europe. In a meeting last week between Greenpeace and McDonald's the company did not deny that their chicken is fed on Amazon soya. Greenpeace first asked McDonald's to account for their chicken feed three months ago.
Last year McDonald's named Cargill its first ever 'Supplier of the Year', awarded to the business that makes the most significant impact on, and contribution to, the fast food chain's US business results.
The report conclusively links Cargill's Santarem facility - which supplies soya to produce McNuggets - to illegal deforestation. In one of numerous case studies contained within the report, soya supplied to the terminal is traced back to the Lavras farm, which sits on illegally grabbed land, some of which was cleared of rainforest to grow soya. Greenpeace has a copy of the contract between Cargill and the farm's owners, the Cortezia brothers.
A report last month in Nature magazine revealed that 40% of the Amazon will be lost by 2050 if current trends in agricultural expansion continue, threatening bio-diversity and massively contributing to climate change.
Pat Venditti added: "McDonald's is spending millions sponsoring the football World Cup, while an area of the Amazon rainforest the size of a football pitch is being destroyed every ten seconds. McDonald's is super-sizing Amazon destruction."
For more information contact Greenpeace on 0207 865 8255
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