Killing Fields The Battle To Feed Factory Farms

[lela]

A hidden chain of destruction stretches from the factory farms in Europe to the forests of South America - where huge soy plantations, grown to feed chickens, cows and pigs in Europe, are wiping out wildlife and making climate change worse.

To make way for soy plantations, thousands of people are being forced from their land. Indigenous people are being evicted and forests are being cleared.

This ground breaking film investigates the impacts of growing soy in South America and shows how small scale farming that is good for people and the environment is losing out to big business of pesticides – poisoning rural communities, water sources and nature.

Few people realise that a hidden chain of destruction stretches from factory farms in Europe to the forests of South America – where huge soy plantations are wiping out wildlife and making climate change worse. Soy, grown to feed chickens, cows and pigs in Europe, now covers over 11 million hectares in South America – an area equivalent to all the arable farmland in Germany – and demand is growing fast.

"Here we had water, streams, crops, big trees. Now everything is destroyed. I think we, the Kaiowa indigenous people are going to die, our race is going to end here".

Getulio De Oliveira, Leader of the Guarani Kaiowa people, Brazil

Video Link:

http://feedingfactoryfarms.org/

 

[studiodio]

This is a topic that my heart throb and my 65 year old blood boil....if anyone else has studied whats out there about range fed versus feed lot beef(one of the reasons i moved down here 4 years ago, now range fed is hard to find), about how soy contracts seem to have a corelation with gov "incentives" paid to argentine ranchers to put their cattle in feed lots and turn their pastures over to soy,not to mention Monsonto incentives paid to big farmers to use monsonto hybrid seed that is messing up big time with the multivaried seed pool of vegies), one can get angry and frustrated.....whats an individual to do? I try to ask in restaurants an butcher shops, "is this range feed or feed lot? i prefer feed lot" (maybe planting a seed that will build awareness ) I try to find "heritage seeds" for my backyard vegi garden....and talk about the advantages....I try to support locally grown by individual small farmers as much as i can, (BA has a growning "farmers markets" movement , the "Slow Food" movement has some growing support in argentina).
OK i admit it that i am from oregon and if any of you have seen the comedy tv show Portlandia, I am guilty, like their characters, of being a bit obsessive about this topic.....but if you do nothing else, check out Barbara Kingsolver's book,"Animal, Vegatable , Miricle"where she not only tells what she did about some of these issues personally, but also spreads throughut science facts that might make your blood boil too....

 

[lela]

check out Barbara Kingsolver's book,"Animal, Vegatable , Miricle"where she not only tells what she did about some of these issues personally, but also spreads throughut science facts that might make your blood boil too....

like to read that! as a convinced veggy i get more and more frustrated and disgusted by the meat industry!

 

[Gringoboy]

And this is enough to make you weep:
http://current.com/technology/94075562_argentinas-bad-seeds.htm

 

[arlean]

I am obsessive about it as well. NOTHING is as important as our food supply. Thanks for the posts. I will check out the links. It is important to get this information to as many people as possible. Including me!!! Good job, yáll!