Does Growing Soy Destroy Amazon Rainforest?
In the first seven years of this century, around 19 million hectares of rainforest in the Legal Amazon region of Brazil were cut down. But the jury's out on the chief culprit behind this deforestation鈥� Now a team from 海角社区 in Canada and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia has discovered evidence that soy production is indirectly causing deforestation. Navin Ramankutty of 海角社区 and colleagues found that soy growth on former cattle pasture in the state of Mato Grosso in the southern Amazon could be leading to the creation of replacement pasture in Par谩 state further north鈥� "The spurt of research in this area is because of the concern that soybean cultivation in the Amazon may be leading to deforestation. The soybean lobby in the Amazon has refuted this, arguing that soybeans are not causing new deforestation, but simply replacing old abandoned pastures."