Controversial Greenpeace Probe Links British Dairy Farms Soya Supply Chain To “Environmental Devastation”

Well known supermarket brands and dairy producers such as Cathedral City Cheddar, Cadbury chocolate, Anchor butter, Country Life butter and Davidstow Cheddar, have been linked to “the destruction of vast tracts of Brazilian forest”, through use of farms which feed cattle soya sold by a controversial supplier.

Arla Foods who make Anchor butter, Cravendale milk, and ASDA’s Farmers milk said: “Both Arla and the dairy farmers that own our cooperative are taking steps to manage our use of soy responsibly. Since 2014, we have purchased RTRS-credits (Standard for Responsible Soy Production) to cover use of soy in feed on Arla owner farms and in ingredients that [are] not already certified.

A group of British farms, which sell their milk to these companies, source some of their animal feed from companies buying Brazilian soya exported by the US grain giant Cargill, the investigation by Greenpeace, ITV and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism claims.

Our investigation found Cargill, one of the world’s largest food conglomerates, is sourcing soya from recently deforested farms in the Cerrado…Dairy farmers here believe they are buying sustainably soured soya, but our investigation suggests otherwise.

The UK imports around 2.6 million tonnes of soybeans for animal feed each year – that’s the equivalent weight of more than 5,000 jumbo jets. Nearly 30% comes from Brazil, according to EFECA, and much of that from the Cerrado region – the most endangered biodome on the planet.Over the years, more than half of the Cerrado’s original forest has been cleared for agriculture…

Both regions are already at huge risk from further deterioration from fire and deforestation, largely to create more agricultural land.

The Cerrado region, where most of Brazil’s soya is grown, is home to 5 per cent of the world’s plant and animal species, while the Amazon contains 10 per cent of all known species.

What it means for other import reliant nations

No doubt a ripple effect of this development just like what is obtained in other sectors like energy, will hit some developing countries that are import reliant. In country like Nigeria where the price for milk is on a constant rise due to lack of Forex for importers and import ban on some items; the situation will be worth adressing.

Worldwide purchases of milk imports totaled US$30 billion in 2020.

Overall, the value of imported milk increased by 19.6% for all importer countries since 2016 when import purchases of milk were valued at $25.1 billion. From 2019 to 2020, international purchases of milk dipped by -1.2% in value.

From a continental perspective, Asian countries imported the highest dollar worth of milk during 2020 with purchases costing $11.2 billion or 45.4% of the global total. In second place were European importers at 33.4% while 11.3% of the world’s imported milk was delivered to Africa.