South America: Coalition calls on NGOs to withdraw support to Responsible Soy Roundtable

Asunción, Paraguay--One week before the third meeting of the Roundtable on
Responsible Soy (RTRS) in Buenos Aires, Argentina [1], the Global Forest
Coalition, a worldwide coalition of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
Indigenous Peoples Organizations [2], have published an open call to NGOs to
withdraw themselves from the RTRS process [3]. The Coalition states that by
supporting the roundtable, NGOs are legitimizing the expansion of large-scale
soy monocultures that lead to massive deforestation, pesticide contamination,
rural depopulation, malnutrition and violent land conflicts. It calls upon NGOs
to instead address the over-consumption of products like meat and transport
fuels in continents like Europe, which is the main destination of South
American soy.

"It is not coherent to increase export levies to halt the 'soyfication' of our
country while there is continued support for the production of agrofuels,
taking into account that there are 9.000.000 hectares of additional soy
production needed to supply the agrodiesel plants that are currently
projected," points out Elba Stancich of the NGO Taller Ecologista in Argentina.
"The continued support for the current agricultural model forms the main
obstacle to another type of agriculture, as it obliges small and medium-size
farmers to adopt non-sustainable production methods based on competition and
industrialization. Instead, we need family farms that foster the sustainable
use of our common wealth for the production of quality food for local
consumption."

"Soy monoculture covers 21 million hectares in Brazil, the second largest world
producer and exporter of soybean, soybean oil and soybean meal, and the largest
exporter of value added soy as poultry, pork and beef. Soy also accounts for
80% of the raw material used to produce biodiesel in Brazil to date, " said
Camila Moreno from Terra Di Direitos in Brazil. She adds: "Soy is indisputably
recognized as the main driving force of deforestation over the Amazon and
Cerrado and a root cause of the escalating rural violence and human rights
violations associated to land issues in our country. Soy expansion and soy
greed has allowed Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) illegally into the
country, smuggling seeds from Argentina. That gives precedent to the
legalization of other GMOs leading to peasant and family farm indebtedness in
southern Brazil."

The standards for "responsible" soy as currently proposed do not even exclude
genetically modified soy, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of
consumers in Europe rejects genetically modified crops.

Elias Diaz Peña of Sobrevivencia in Paraguay adds: "We entirely reject the
irresponsible insistence on such an oxymoron as sustainable soy. Soy is the
cement of an all western way of life and diet, and as we see all around, there
is no criteria but profit to its expansion. Even more scandalous than soy's
devastating effects over biodiversity and traditional food cultures is the
hypocrisy of northern consumers and their governments that refuse to accept the
bare truth."

According to Dr. Miguel Lovera, the chairperson of the Global Forest Coalition,
"The support of civil society organisations to this Roundtable is legitimizing
a corporate-dominated process that attempts to give a green veneer to further
soy expansion in South America and other regions instead of promoting more
sustainable consumption patterns that would take away the need for further
expansion." Lovera, a Paraguayan agronomist, adds: "Certification processes
are not able to address the indirect impacts of soy production, such as
deforestation caused by cattle ranching and other agricultural activities that
are displaced by soy monocultures. We need a dramatic reduction of soy
monocultures, land reform and a country-wide deforestation ban here, as well as
a drastic reduction in the consumption of meat, diary and agrodiesel in the
countries addicted to soy."

For more information, please contact:
Orin Langelle, Global Forest Coalition media coordinator:
+1-802-482-2689/+1-578-6980 (English)
Dr. Miguel Lovera, chairperson, Global Forest Coalition: +595-21-663654/ +
595-971-201957 (English, Spanish, French and Dutch)
Pablo Valenzuela, media coordinator, Sobrevivencia, +595-21-480182
Elias Diaz Peña, director environmental program, Sobrevivencia: +595-21-480182
(English and Spanish)
Elba Stancich, Coordinación General, Taller Ecologista - Argentina: Telefax
+54-341-4261475 (Spanish)