Fairfood Talks: A Sunday morning piece of rainforest

By now, most people will know that soy is not only used to make fake milk or veggie meat replacements. In the production of food, soy is omnipresent: 60% of the products in the supermarket are produced using soy. For the production of eggs, meat and dairy products, soy is used as a source of protein in animal feed.

As the world population increases, so does meat consumption. After 1990, the consumption of soy increased from 100 million tons to 200 million tons within 15 years. Most soy production takes place in South America, on ever growing plantations. The rapid expansion of soy plantations in Brazil and Argentina has great ecological, economical and social impacts. The original vegetation in Brazil, like the Amazon rainforest or the Cerrado savanna, is decreasing at the rate of 3.7 million hectares per year. Local communities lose their lands and their ways to support themselves. In these regions food insecurity and poverty are on the rise.

For two years now, Fairfood International has been urging companies in the food industry to start using sustainable soy. And so far, with great success! Dutch egg producers Kwetters, Gulliker & Roodbol and Natuurfarm De Boed have successfully made their supply chains for soy more sustainable. Fairfood has been urging Albert Heijn to do the same.

Right now, when you have your Sunday morning Albert Heijn private label free range egg with a little cheese on toast, you are eating a small part of the rainforest. This has to change soon. And it can, it only takes a little courage. Recently, Friends of the Earth Netherlands has been campaigning against AH’s “cheap meat”, basically for the same reasons as Fairfood’s campaign on soy. The FOTE-NL campaign is a great initiative and a perfect opportunity for AH to make a good impression. So far, though, the results have been disappointing. AH refuses to announce any intention to start using more sustainable soy. That is why Fairfood, together with FOTE-NL will keep on asking AH to finally take a positive stand on sustainable soy.

TBC…

Hugo Hooijer
Fairfood Internatinal - Project leader brand owners