Stockholm university

Demand for meat is driving deforestation in Brazil

Soy may have a pretty innocuous reputation thanks to its association with vegan food and meat alternatives. But don’t be fooled – crops of this pale legume are behind much of Brazil’s epidemic of deforestation. A new article in The Conversation discusses the soy industry.

The Amazon rainforest meets soybean fields in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo: Paralaxis/Shutterstock
The Amazon rainforest meets soybean fields in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo: Paralaxis/Shutterstock


The article is published on December 17 and is written by Angela Guerrero Gonzalez, Postdoctoral researcher, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, and Malika Virah-Sawmy, Visiting Scientist, Humboldt University of Berlin.

They write:
“The connection between meat, soy and deforestation might be invisible to consumers, but that link is well known by those in the business of producing and trading both products. Together with colleagues, we investigated this supply chain to find out what’s preventing businesses from halting habitat destruction in the Cerrado of Brazil, a tropical savanna where soy agriculture is making inroads.”

Read the article published in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/demand-for-meat-is-driving-deforestation-in-brazil-changing-the-soy-industry-could-stop-it-151060

Read more about the collaboration between Stockholm University and The Conversation and how to pitch an article idea: https://www.su.se/staff/services/information-communication/pitch-an-article-idea-for-the-conversation-1.462268

More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University: https://theconversation.com/institutions/stockholm-university-1019

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