The Earth is burning. TheAmazon is now on the central stage, Southeast Asia and Central Africa in the wings. But the G7’s tweets at the theater of hypocrisy certainly do not put out the fires.
Stopping the arsonists requires spoiling the business plans of ruralistas and palmocrats by stopping the demand for GMO soybeans and palm oil. #Buycott!
All against Captain Chainsaw, but only in tweets. The G7 of hypocrisy
The G7 leaders ‘ focus on biodiversity is just an impromptu scene at the theater of hypocrisy. The burning Amazon is a golden opportunity to display the humanoid mask of those state leaders who have been pursuing inhumane policies for years. Always serving the financial elites and at the expense of the people of the planet.
Criticism of Jair Bolsonaro – a.k.a. Captain Chainsaw or ‘the Black’ (bundle and ash-colored) – is just tweets. Literally, chirps. After brief remarks by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, it was Emmanuel Macron’s turn. The G7 chairperson in Biarritz accused Bolsonaro of ‘lying’ in downplaying climate change concerns at the G20 summit in Osaka, 28-29.6.19. As if no one ever knew before late June about the land robberies and deforestation fomented by Captain Chainsaw (!).
The French president announced that now, now yes France will oppose the ratification of the toxic treaty between the European Union and the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay). The best idea heard so far from Emmanuel, who we really hope will keep his promise. Except to recall that its very followers, on 23.7.19 in the ‘Lower House’ in Paris, lavished on the ratification of CETA, another toxic treaty no less problematic even on the bioethics front.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel applauded her French counterpart’s invitation to put the issue of Amazon fires on the agenda of the G7 meeting in Biarritz. Without even mentioning the EU-Mercosur agreement, which happens to be a priority for the German automotive industry. The highway in the Amazon will be able to be driven in Volkswagens and Mercedes exported without duties, nothing better for greater Germany (!). Indeed, the G7 member states have already agreed on the amount of medium-term aid for the vague ‘reforestation’ of a few strips of land, perhaps just on either side of the Amazon rodovia (highway) that Black Bolsonaro has already planned.
Germany and Norway have since suspended donations to Brazil’s government fund for Amazon forest conservation. A cosmetic touch, always useful to appease Greta Thunberg’s followers in those countries that are geographically close to her. Not to mention that Germany is the European leader in greenhouse gas emissions-with 40 percent of energy produced in coal-fired power plants-which are still a long way from the reduction targets set in the EU.
Black vs. economic allies, always and only on tweets
The irony in Black Jair Bolsonaro’s tweet responses to his Western economic allies is revealing of the superficiality of a clash that is only apparent. Indeed, the prospects for growth in economic affairs–based on the export of GMO soybeans, palm oil and meat produced in the Amazon, Cerrado and Gran Chaco under accelerated deforestation–are flourishing.
Black continues to taunt its major economic partners, with whom just on 6/28/19 it concluded the most important free trade treaty ever made by the Mercosur countries and the European Union. Everyone knew about the ongoing disasters, as they knew about the pesticide cataclysm. In South America as in Canada, the U.S., and Europe itself, the Big 4 monopoly is going strong.
The rhetoric about France’s neo-colonialist approach and the failure to protect whales in Norway, the macho joke about the première dame of Paris leave time for the theater of hypocrisy. And both the arson origin and the economic motive of the fires that have been raging in South America for months are known. Devastating forests to make way for GMO soybean crops, palm oil and intensive livestock farms designed to feed the global market.
The toxic treaties concluded and negotiated by the Juncker Commission, for that matter, do not even refer to socio-environmental sustainability, human rights and the environment. Nor, ça va sans dir, to the precautionary principle. Toxic clouds, meanwhile, have also darkened the skies over the metropolis of São Paulo, 2,300 km from the fires in the Latin American apocalypse.
Brazil, deforestation and international reactions
Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE)-which together with NASA and ESA’s Copernicus Program oversees Amazon deforestation-reports data from the AQUA satellite. Highlighting how, since the beginning of 2019, 76,720 fires have been recorded throughout Brazil. +84% over 2018, +88% in June alone when the EU-Mercosur agreement was being signed.
China-which even under Xi Jinping’s leadership has achieved global leadership not only in the economy but also in reforestation of its territories-has yet to take a position on the ongoing global ecocide. That should be attributed, it is pointed out, to GMO soybeans from South America but also to palm oil. Two commodities still essential for the Middle Empire, which still depends on foreign supplies despite being able to benefit from the largest arable area on the planet (12.68 percent of the total, World Bank 2015 data). National sovereignty over
soyalism
is therefore the only hope.
La Via Campesina is the most determined international organization in asserting the rights of peasants and rural communities. Via Campesina Brazil, Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra in the lead, raises its voice. Ongoing land grabs and deforestation must be stopped and punished as international crimes against humanity.
‘After nearly two decades of reducing deforestation, the current president and his environment minister, Ricardo Salles, delivered a violent speech against Brazilian legislation and environmental conservation mechanisms. At the same time increasing the persecution and criminalization of populations that historically protected Brazilian biomes, peasant families and indigenous peoples.’(Movimiento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, press release 23.8.19.
The Vatican organized the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian region from Oct. 6 to 27.10.19. Pope Francis, who had already addressed these issues in hisencyclical Laudato Si’, wishes the Church to take on an Amazonian face. Jesuits work on multiple fronts in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru. In schools, to share the unique and unrepeatable value of nature to be preserved. But also to help indigenous peoples protect their traditions, starting with local languages.
Finland is the only country in the world to have made a decision consistent with the goals of safeguarding the planet. In fact, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Jari Leppa has declared a commitment to rid his country of soybean imports by 2025 at the latest. To this end, local farmers will be encouraged to expand cultivation of various protein sources (including oats, peas and canola) on an additional 80,000 hectares. After Finance Minister Mika Lintila introduced a ban on Brazilian meat imports last week.
Bolivia, more fires in the name of soy, palm and sugarcane
Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, in turn took to Twitter on 8/25/19 to thank Emmanuel Macron’s twittering at the G7. He finally declared a national emergency and proposed a meeting at the UN General Assembly where he would decide on a plan of ‘concrete actions’ to be taken to protect the Amazon. Some Bolivarian-inspired governments-Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, among others-have included ecosystem protection, in the constitutional charters of their respective countries. Although Morales himself, now under campaigning, has also suffered fierce criticism from the campesino community.
‘All the devastation is the result of an irrational economic policy of expanding monocultures (soybeans and cane) and expanding livestock.’(Coordinadora Nacional de Defensa de Territorios Indígenas Originarios Campesinos y Areas Protegidas, Contiocap, Bolivia)
1 million hectares of natural forest is already burned in Chiquitania. One of Bolivia’s most prosperous and prosperous regions, along with the Gran Chaco and the Amazon. It, too, inevitably falls victim to the lusts of soybean, palm and sugarcane farmers.
#Buycott! GMO soy and palm oil, American meats, #Enough!
Égalité and GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade) carry on the #Buycott campaign! GMO soy and palm oil, American meats. Drastically stopping the international demand for these commodities-the prime planetary causes of land robbery(land grabbing) and deforestation-is the most immediate solution to the abominations on human communities and the environment. We are all responsible for immense tragedies that have persisted for years and only today are emerging in their widespread severity, without any political force having lifted a finger to address them.
We now say #Enough! Let us resolutely and consistently refuse to participate in these bloodthirsty and incendiary supply chains by strictly and cohesively refraining from purchasing any product-food or otherwise-that contains palm oil. We demand that Italian and European livestock farms discontinue supplies of GMO soybeans, asking producers of foods of animal origin (meat, eggs, dairy products) to offer adequate guarantees in this precise regard. We purchase only animal products that come from guaranteed ‘100% GMO-free’ livestock supply chains. #NotInOurNames, #NotInOurNames. #Ivotocolwallet!
To our cowardly politicians, who not even at the G7 dared even a useless tweet, we urge the proposals already addressed to the constituent Italian government. Starting with the reversal of toxic treaties (CETA, EU-Mercosur, TTIP in the making), and the adoption of concrete measures for the revitalization of truly sustainable agrifood supply chains. From the supply chain representations, ‘fromseed tofork’ and ‘from feed to fork,’ we demand consistency to the stated goals and interests of consumers. Transparency and long-term strategies geared toward generations to come rather than election deadlines. And the blessed civil society, please make yourself heard, Buycott!
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.