France Announces Plan To Cut Imports Of Brazilian Soy - To "Stop Importing Deforestation"
Coincidence or not, one day after the release of data by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) — showing that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has topped 11,000 square kilometers, reaching a 12-year high — the French government officially launched its plant protein development plan, which had been in preparation since at least last January. Julien Denormandie, French Minister of Agriculture and Food, stated that the goal of the plan is “to recover part of [France’s] agri-food sovereignty, reducing dependence on vegetable protein, and to stop importing deforestation.”
Denormandie’s reference to imported deforestation, though nonspecific, was almost certainly aimed at Brazil, infamous for its tropical deforestation due to agribusiness expansion in the Amazon, especially under the Jair Bolsonaro administration. At present, France is the European Union nation importing the most Brazilian soy flour — a total of nearly 2 million tons annually. Under the new plan, those imports will be drastically reduced.
Between August 2019 and July 2020, Brazil saw the highest rate of Amazon deforestation in more than a decade, with an increase of 9.5% compared to the same period the year before. Also over that same time period, the number of fines imposed by IBAMA (Brazil’s environmental agency) against illegal deforesters in the rainforest biome fell 42% from 3,403 to 1,964 citations. The amount of fines applied in those 12 months is the lowest in the history of IBAMA, according to FakeBook.eco, an initiative of the Climate Observatory, a network of civil society organizations.
EDIT
Brazilian soy producers and commodities companies have grown increasingly concerned that Bolsonaro’s extreme anti-environmental rhetoric and policies will cripple their industry. But the French move to distance itself from Brazilian soy may be just the first such economic impact. Much worse could be in the offing if France, Ireland and other nations refuse to ratify the US$19 trillion Mercosur trade agreement between the EU and a Latin American bloc including Brazil.
EDIT
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/as-amazon-deforestation-hits-12-year-high-france-rejects-brazilian-soy/
