soya

The global campaign to highlight how food companies were complicit in destroying the Amazon rainforest through their use of Amazon-grown soya made headlines around the world and clearly touched the hearts of Radio 4 listeners because we've been nominated for a gong in their Food and Farming Awards.

Most of the categories are turned over to shops and producers who go that extra mile in provide quality grub but we come under the Derek Cooper Special Award for, and I quote, "their work raising awareness of the ethical and environmental dimensions of food production, in particular their soya campaign". It was a public vote that got us into the nominations but it's the steely minds of the judging panel that will make the final decision, and with distinguished competition in the form of the Caroline Walker Trust and the Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP, it'll be tough. Tune in Sunday 26 November to see if we win.

John Sauven, campaign special projects director for Greenpeace UK, explains how Greenpeace worked with McDonald's to change the food industry's attitude towards Amazon soya.

"Huge chickens invaded fast food stores in London and started to ask customers if they knew they were eating soya from deforested areas of the Amazon. That was in April. The chickens were noisy Greenpeace activists... It took McDonald's only six hours between the first 'homo chickenacius' invasion of its restaurants and the phone call to Greenpeace to discuss the issue. Why? Because fast-food consumers started to be choked with McNuggets and McChickens. Ethical consumption's appeal is increasing."

In an historic deal that has impacts far beyond the golden arches and into the global agricultural market, McDonald's is now the leading company in the campaign to halt deforestation for the expansion of soya farming in the Amazon.

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.