Europe's stubborn addiction to deforested Argentinian soy

[Judi Lynn]

Soybeans from deforested areas of the Argentine Chaco continue to end up in the animal feed on Europe's farms. The EU's promised crackdown keeps getting delayed.

Published on 15 January 2024 at 17:15
Stefano Valentino
Translated by Harry Bowden


To feed the animals that satisfy Europe’s steadily rising consumption of meat and dairy products in Europe, farmers rely heavily on imported cereals from Latin America, primarily soy. After Brazil, Argentina is the European Union's second largest supplier of soybean products, covering 21% (7.7 million tonnes in 2021) of the 27 member states' total consumption. Because of its high protein value, soy accounts for up to 25% of the feed given to industrial livestock.

Soy, mostly genetically modified, arrives in the EU both processed into meal or cake and in the form of unprocessed soybeans which are then processed into flour in European plants. Argentina is historically the world's largest exporter of the processed meal (though Brazil is likely to overtake it in 2023). Because of its high protein value, soy meal accounts for up to 25 percent of the feed given to industrial livestock.

The cultivation of soy is devastating for forest ecosystems, likely more so than any other product recently imported to Europe. The EU is in second place (after China) for soy imports worldwide (and in third place after China and India for all commodities whose production is responsible for deforestation). Between the raw soybeans and the processed soybean meal of cake, including those specifically used for animal feed, Europe imported more than 580 billion tonnes in the ten years until September 2023, according to Eurostat data.

In particular, the EU is the largest importer of soybeans from Chaco, an ecologically sensitive region of northern Argentina. The Chaco exported 356,000 tonnes to Europe in 2019, accounting for more than 50% the area's total exports. With its major contribution to global demand, Europe has thus prompted producers to deforest large areas of this Argentinian region to make room for soybeans destined as animal feed for meat production.

Chaco is in third place among regions supplying soybeans to the European Union, after Amazonia and Cerrado (in Brazil). These latter areas, however, are mainly oriented towards the Chinese market.

In answer to the disastrous environmental impact of tropical soybean farming, in 2022 the EU passed a new regulation (called EUDR, European Union Deforestation Regulation). This bans the produce of deforested land from entering the European market. Alas, the ban's implementation has been postponed until 2025. Together with legal loopholes arising from lobbying by the timber industry and its allies in some EU governments, this has left a number of forests (in Europe and beyond) languishing at the mercy of the profit motive.

More:
https://voxeurop.eu/en/europe-addiction-deforested-argentinian-soy/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Europe's food giants turn a blind eye to deforestation in Argentina (Part Two)

To feed the farm animals that produce Europe's finest meat and cheese, Italian and Spanish multinationals are importing massive quantities of soy from the Chaco region, which is prone to deforestation. They are thus helping to destroy this biodiversity hotspot.

Published on 12 March 2024 at 07:20

Stefano Valentino
Translated by Harry Bowden

In the first part of our report we saw how soy from deforestation-prone areas in Argentina continues to arrive in Europe, despite an EU ban on the products of illegal logging. In this second part, we will look at how prestigious brands such as Parmigiano Reggiano and San Daniele get hold of the same products by exploiting legal loopholes and abusing self-regulation.

From silos in deforested areas of the Chaco ecoregion in Argentina, soybeans are transported to the ports of Rosario and San Lorenzo on Argentina’s Paraná River. Here they are processed into meal in the pressing plants of large international traders, and then loaded onto cargo ships bound for Europe.

The Gran Chaco is a 110 million hectare region stretching across Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. The dry forests of the Chaco are one of the largest remaining contiguous areas of native vegetation in South America, second in size only to the great Amazon rainforest. The region is highly biodiverse and is home to many endemic species as well as several indigenous communities.

According to data from the tracking service MarineTraffic, since 2019 a number of ships have been plying the Atlantic between these two ports and ports in Italy and Spain. These two countries are respectively ranked first and second in Europe, and fifth and sixth worldwide, for imports of soybean meal or cake from Argentina and also thus for exposure to deforestation in the Chaco ecoregion.

In 2019, the European Union as a whole imported 355,979 tonnes of soy (both seeds and meal) from the Chaco ecoregion. About 2.1% of it comes from at least 2,332 hectares of potentially deforested plots. That same year, the two main European importers, Italy and Spain, imported 71,797 and 76,033 tonnes of soy (both seeds and meal) respectively. About 2.1% of it came from at least 466 and 500 hectares respectively of potentially deforested plots (1). A third of these plots were located in Argentina's Almirante Brown department, which is the area of the Chaco province most hard-hit by deforestation for soy cultivation. This is according to the most recent data provided by Trase, a platform for monitoring the sustainability of farming commodities.

Once the meal arrives in Italy and Spain, it is mixed with other cereals by feed manufacturers who supply all the EU's national livestock sectors (pig(Ps, poultry, eggs, beef, and dairy). It is noteworthy that Italy and Spain are respectively the first and fifth largest producers of meat on the EU market, according to data shared with us by Eurostat. Italy is also among the largest exporters of cheese on the continent.

More:
https://voxeurop.eu/en/soy-europe-food-giants-deforestation-argentina-chaco/