Civil society denounces the landgrabbing and deforestation still taking place in Brazil to produce ‘sustainable’ palm oil for Ferrero and other giants of the globalized food industry. Nestlé, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, Mars, Danone and Langnese among others.
Colonialism has had rare moments of respite in the grave silence of the mainstream media. Thus in Latin America, as in Africa and Southeast Asia, land robbery and ecocide still continue. And ruralistas and fazendeiros-in destroying local communities, people, and ecosystems-now even make use of fake certifications and greenwashing.
We express solidarity with the largest movement of landless workers – MST, promoter of the initiative – and say Enough! to land grabbing and deforestation in Brazil (and beyond)! Yes to democracy, equitable land distribution and a radical ecology of care! #Buycott! Here’s why.
1) ‘Against the ‘sustainable’ destruction of the rainforest and the people who inhabit it‘. Open letter
The Landless Workers Movement (MST) published an open letter, May 13, 2023, co-signed by intellectuals, writers and artists from around the world. To expose the practice of
greenwashing
in Brazil by the Agropalma company and the food industrial giants that purchase palm oil from it. (1) Swiss director Milo Rau, meanwhile, depicts the abominations of land grabbing and deforestation in the play ‘Antigone in the Amazon. (2)
We cultivate the land and the land cultivates us
(Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST)
May 13 is a revolutionary day. On that date in 1888, slavery was officially abolished in Brazil. 80 years later, from the barricades in Paris, the general strike against big business is proclaimed. But the ideals of freedom, respect for people and the environment, and equitable distribution of resources have collapsed under a neoliberal system of exploitative globalization.
2) Colonialism and neocolonialism.
During the colonization of Latin America, indigenous peoples were robbed not only of their freedom and culture, but also of their land and millions of lives. More than half of Latin America’s agricultural land is still owned by 1 percent of the population. Soybeans, palm oil and beef are the products of huge monocultures dominated by large corporations that control primary agricultural production from planting to sale.
In Brazil alone, soybean and corn cultivation now occupies an area twice as large as Portugal’s, with goodwill also to biodiversity. While land robbery(land grabbing), forced deportations deforestation and displacement in Brazil go hand in hand with mass industrial production. (3) Quilomboloa communities (founded by descendants of enslaved people) and small farmers are being exploited, displaced and even killed.
3) Murders of local activists and community members.
MST, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra–committed since the 1980s to popular land reform and ecological agriculture–has so far succeeded in securing access to land for more than 400,000 families in Brazil. And it has therefore been criminalized and fought by Brazil’s agribusiness industries.
Every year dozens of activists die or disappear without a trace. According to statistics, Pará, a Brazilian state largely covered by the Amazon rainforest, has the highest number of political murders in the world. In no other region of the planet are so many activists and climate warriors disappearing, killed by the militias of monoculture owners, the loyalists of Jair Bolsonaro (4,5,6).
These activists are fighting for all of us as the future of the planet is decided in the Amazon (Brazil). For or against:
– land grabbing for soybean, palm oil and beef production,
– deforestation of the largest primary forest on the planet,
– ecological and humane agriculture, rather than flooded with pesticides and agrotoxics (7,8).
4) Certified (In)sustainability
Non-mandatory certifications related to ‘sustainability’ should ensure nonviolent and environmentally friendly production of palm oil, soybeans, beef and many other products. Through this certification system, ‘Ferrero (Nutella) in particular is considered top of the class in terms of sustainability. Collaborates with WWF and engages in self-referential statements in environmental protection. (9)
The only problem is that all these initiatives and labels are simply examples of neoliberal greenwashing! Countless studies show that behind these ‘green labels’ are crimes against nature and human beings. Agropalma, Brazil’s largest palm oil company-operating in the Amazon state of Pará and supplying 20 international food producers, including Ferrero (Nutella), Nestlé, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, Mars, Langnese and Danone – it is the most cynical example‘.
4.1) Green labels and greenwashing
‘Agropalma is certified with a total of 10 international marks for organic, fair and sustainable cultivation, including the EU Organic Production Regulation (EU Organic Mark) and RSPO (Roundtable for Sustainable Palmoil)‘. (10) ‘The RSPO brand, for example, is chaired by an executive of the Unilever group, which at 1.4 million tons per year is the world’s largest consumer of palm oil!’ And it is ‘curious’ – an understatement – that a recent WWF report (2020) on the most voracious purchasers of palm oil failed to report data from a long-standing user of it such as Unilever (11,12).
‘Agropalma monocultures are not only the result of colonial grabbing, but also the illegal appropriation of state land and the expulsion of indigenous smallholders. Tens of thousands of hectares of the palm oil producer’s land have already been annulled by Brazilian courts, Brazilian media report‘.
While the European Commission has just launched its latest campaign against greenwashing and Nutella continues to flaunt its invalid labels, Brazilian lawyers and international NGOs are denouncing violence, human rights violations and poor working conditions on certified plantations. More than 500 years after the invasion of Latin America, economics and politics continue to do what they have always done: combine maximum profit with minimal concessions to the health of the planet and its inhabitants, masked by cynical ‘sustainability’ rhetoric.
5) The demands of civil society
Together with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement MST, we pursue the following demands and initiatives.
5.1) Immediate verification of certifications
‘We ask to the Brazilian government and government agencies to ensure respect for human rights on Agropalma plantations and to clarify the legal situation of the Pará territories. In addition, the entire certification system needs to be revised.
Trademarks devised, controlled and assigned by stakeholder associations: as absurd as it gets! We call on the EU to stop its empty rhetoric (13) and finally take the necessary political and legal steps to support global civil society‘ (14,15).
5.2) Boycott against Ferrero and all other industries involved
‘In recent years, Ferrero, Nestlé, Danone, Unilever and others have presented themselves as the best in class when it comes to sustainable and equitable agriculture. In reality, however, they are the best only when it comes to greenwashing. Our chocolates and chocolate bunnies, our Kinder chocolate and the Nutella in our morning sandwich are linked to human rights violations, land grabbing and environmental degradation, whether in Latin America, Asia or Africa. We call for an immediate boycott of all products from customers of Agropalma and other large agribusinesses‘.
5.3) Together for independent agriculture.
‘Agropalma and its clients are just two particularly inhumane examples of a global system of label scams: the neoliberal fiction of sustainable industrial production. We need radical change. We stop buying products from transnational companies.
We don’t need an economic system that doesn’t implement the absolutely necessary stop to deforestation, but instead enriches itself by delaying it with false labels, CO2 deals, and private protected forests-not the system we need. We demand truly cooperative, ethical and organic food‘.
5.4) Radical change in the system
‘We cannot change the past, but we can determine how history continues. Together, we end the crimes of colonialism against people and nature. Let’s join forces to fight the billion-dollar greenwashing industry.
Social justice and climate protection go hand in hand. We support the Landless Workers Movement MST in its struggle for genuine land reform. Let us strive for radical system change-it is not too late.
Let’s stop the certified sell-out of our planet! Land reform now! Against neoliberal greenwashing! For a radical care economy! Let’s sign the May 13 Declaration for an ecological, humane and just global economy!‘ (17)
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) ‘Against the ‘sustainable’ destruction of the rainforest and the people who inhabit it‘. Read more at https://www.declaration13may.com/declaration/
(2) Milo Rau. Antigone in the Amazon. NT Gent. https://www.ntgent.be/en/productions/antigone-in-the-amazon
(3) Dario Dongo, Isis Consuelo Sanlucar Chirinos. Land grabbing and deforestation in Brazil, the barbarities continue. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 20.5.22
(4) Dario Dongo, Giulia Torre. Indigenous blood at dinner? Buycott. Égalité. 24.10.19
(5) Elena Bosani. Brazilian agribusiness. Ecocide and genocide of indigenous people. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12.7.22
(6) The latest murder of an indigenous chief in the Amazon was committed just days after the open letter was published. V. Indigenous chief shot in head in Brazil’s ‘palm oil war’ region; crisis group launched. Farmlandgrab. 16.5.23 https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/31556
(7) Dario Dongo. Brazil, deforestation is compounded by pesticide carnage. Unsustainable EU-Mercosur Agreement. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 21.4.21
(8) Dario Dongo. Brazil, pesticide cataclysm. #Buycott GMO soy and palm oil.. Égalité. 10.8.19
(9) Dario Dongo, Giulia Torre. Palm oil, Ferrero, sustainability. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.7.18
(10) Dario Dongo. Unsustainable palm oil, the charge of 101. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3.12.22
(11) Dario Dongo. Palm oil in foods, where it is found and how to avoid it. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 8.10.20
(12) Dario Dongo. Congo, palm oil and colonialism. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 18.11.18
(13) Dario Dongo. Green Claims Directive, Brussels’ weak proposal against greenwashing. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 23.3.23
(14) The so-called Deforestation Regulation-approved by the European Parliament in its first reading on April 19, 2023 and by the Council on May 16, 2023 (see footnotes 15,16)-in turn provides a clean sweep on deforestation prior to December 31, 2020. V. Dario Dongo. Due diligence and deforestation, stop unsustainable imports of commodities. Proposed EU regulation, the ABC. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.3.22
(15) European Parliament legislative resolution of 19 April 2023 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on making available on the Union market as well as export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 (COM(2021)0706 – C9-0430/2021 – 2021/0366(COD)) https://bit.ly/41Xx3I2
(16)Council adopts new rules to cut deforestation worldwide. https://bit.ly/3Ow6CWV Press release. May 16, 2023
(17) The May 13 open letter signed by the MST(Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) was produced with input from the independent expert committee composed of:
-Rodrigo de Almeida Muniz, Universidade Federal do Sul e Sudeste do Pará – UNIFESSPA
-Wolfgang Kaleck, human rights lawyer, Berlin
-Amintas Lopes da Silva Júnior, Universidade Federal do Sul e Sudeste do Pará – UNIFESSPA
-Christophe Marchand, lawyer, Brussels
-Milo Rau, director of ‘Antigone in the Amazon’
-Klaus Schenk, activist, Rettet den Regenwald and. V.
Early supporters:
-Alberto Acosta, politician, Ecuador
-Giorgio Agamben, philosopher, Italy
-Yann Arthus-Bertrand, photographer, France
-Geneviève Azam, economist, France
-Jérôme Baschet, historian, France
-David Van Reybrouck, author, Belgium
-Sibylle Berg, author, Switzerland
-Julian Boal, author, Brazil
-Noam Chomsky, philosopher and activist, USA
-Alain Damasio, writer, France
-Angela Davis, philosopher and activist, United States
-Philippe Descola, anthropologist, France
-Anuna De Wever, climate activist, Belgium
-Cyril Dion, author and director, France
-Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, political philosopher, Austria
-Brian Eno, artist, Great Britain
-Didier Eribon, sociologist, France
-Annie Ernaux, author, France
-Malcolm Ferdinand, philosopher, France
-Léna Lazare, activist, France
-Adèle Haenel, actress, France
-Donna Haraway, scientific philosopher, USA
-Srecko Horvat, philosopher, Croatia
-Rahel Jaeggi, professor of practical philosophy, Germany
-Elfriede Jelinek, author, Austria
-Ailton Krenak, philosopher, Brazil
-Kim de l’Horizon, author, Switzerland
-Tom Lanoye, author, Belgium
-Édouard Louis, author, France
-Billy MacKinnon, author and producer, Scotland
-Nastassija Martin, anthropologist, France
-Robert Menasse, author, Austria
-Robert Misik, author, Austria
-Baptiste Morizot, philosopher, France
-Chantal Mouffe, political philosopher, Belgium
-Adolf Muschg, author, Switzerland
-Olga Neuwirth, composer, Austria
-Fatima Ouassak, political philosopher, France
-Anja Plaschg (Soap&Skin), singer, Austria
-Carola Rackete, activist, Norway
-Milo Rau, director, Belgium
-Tiago Rodrigues, director, France
-Fabian Scheidler, philosopher, Germany
-Vandana Shiva, activist, India
-Ece Temelkuran, journalist, Turkey
-Theodoros Terzepulos, director, Greece
-Ilya Troyanov, author, Germany
-Luc Tuymans, artist, Belgium
-Yanis Varoufakis, economist and politician, Greece
-Gisèle Vienne, director, France
-Harald Welzer, sociologist, Germany
-Cornel West, philosopher, United States
-Jean Ziegler, sociologist, Switzerland
-Slavoj Zizek, philosopher, Slovenia
In collaboration with:
Rettet den Regenwald e. V.
Attac France
The souls of the earth
IIPM (International Institute for Political Murder)
ZAD Notre-Dame des Landes.
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
