Dozens of environmental nonprofits issued a manifesto Thursday condemning new laws in Brazilian states that threaten to dismantle the Amazon soy moratorium — a landmark voluntary agreement banning trade in soybeans from recently deforested areas.
The 18-year-old moratorium stipulates that traders and oil producers refrain from buying soybeans grown on land cleared after 2008. The deal gathered strange bedfellows, ranging from environmental groups Greenpeace and WWF to U.S. commodity giants Cargill, Bunge and ADM.
