Supermarket chicken linked to deforestation - 7th December 2020

UK supermarkets are selling chicken which is linked to deforestation. The chickens are fed on soya beans from the Cerrado area in Brazil. To grow the soya, trees are cut down. This is bad for the environment.

The Cerrado is a large grassland in Brazil. It is over 2 million square kilometres. This is around 22 percent of Brazil. The region is home to lots of plants and animals. The plants help to take in carbon from the air. This is good for the environment.

But farmers have changed over half of the Cerrado into farmland. Soya is grown for China, Europe and other places.

In recent years, the Brazilian government has weakened the rules on deforestation. This is especially true in the Cerrado, because soya exports bring a lot of money to Brazil.

Every year, a billion chickens are eaten in the UK. This is the same as 15 chickens for every person in the country. Many are fed on soya beans from the Cerrado.

Shoppers have no way of knowing this. Labels on chicken rarely give all the information about it.