Greenpeace says KFC is trashing Amazon rainforests
Greenpeace volunteers have displayed a 300 square metre banner in a deforested area of the Amazon rainforest with the words ‘KFC – Amazon Criminal’, in advance of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC) Annual General Meeting in Kentucky tomorrow.
Activists in two inflatable boats also protested against US commodities giant Cargill, which supplies KFC with animal feed in Europe. The activists believe that KFC is fuelling the destruction of the Amazon by selling cheap chicken fed on soy grown on deforested land.
Greenpeace claims that recent investigations have traced the chain of rainforest destruction directly from the heart of the Amazon to KFC’s European restaurants, which sell bucket-loads of cheap soy-fed chicken to millions of people every day.
Since January 2003, nearly 70,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest has been destroyed, equivalent to an area of rainforest the size of six football pitches every minute. Greenpeace says that soy, which is mainly grown to feed animals, is a leading cause of this destruction.
KFC is part of Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant chain which includes Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, A&W and other fast food companies. Yum! Brands says that its soy is grown in other parts of Brazil.
Greenpeace is calling on KFC and Cargill to ensure that their animal feed does not contribute to the destruction of the Amazon and that none of their soy products are genetically engineered.
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