#Buycott! A bottom-up movement aimed at stopping the demand for GM soybeans and palm oil, as well as for American meats. After the campaign, a petition. Here's why and how to participate.
GMO soy, palm oil and American meats. The champions of unsustainability
GMO soy and palm oil are the prime causes of international crimes against humanity and ecocides, in the Amazon as in other virgin areas of Latin America, in Asia and in Africa. (1)
American meats, in turn, they often come from animals grazing in deforested areas. In Amazonia and Cerrado, like in the Gran Chaco and elsewhere. More in the North, in the USA as in Canada, intensive and extensive animal husbandry makes use of the cloning of animals, without traceability or information to consumers.
Medicines are used vets - like growth hormones and anabolics - which have been banned in Europe for decades. The use of antibiotics is not subject to strict restrictions established in the EU to mitigate the risks associated with antibiotic resistance. And the cattle are also fed with animal meal.
#Buycott! A campaign, and a petition
The #Buycott campaign was launched by Égalité together with GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade), on 4.8.19. To draw the attention of the civil society on the social and ecological crises caused by the GM soybean and palm oil supply chains. As well as meat from the American continent.
The #Buycott petition - which we invite everyone to subscribe by following the link https://www.egalite.org/buycott-petizione/ - was launched by Égalité Onlus in recent days. With the aim of strengthening consumers' awareness of their power to effect change. Stop the demand for products derived from bloody and incendiary supply chains, so that the economic interest that feeds them ceases.
#Buycott! The role of consumers and operators in the supply chain
It is essential increase the awareness of the general public on the real impact of the supply chains denounced by the #Buycott campaign! on local communities, animal welfare and ecosystems.
Without neglecting attention to the health of consumers, inevitably exposed to residues of pesticides and other substances (ab) used without precautions in the monocultures mentioned. In addition to the risks that can arise from the consumption of meat from animals doped with hormones and other drugs that have been banned in Europe for many years.
The objective is to encourage the operators of animal husbandry, industry and distribution in Italy a orienting their own agri-food chains towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs) inserted by the United Nations General Assembly in UN Agenda 2030.
Only thanks to a pneumatic pressure from belowby conscious and determined consumers, it will be possible to induce operators in Italy to change procurement policies. It is necessary to overcome the logic of 'convenience at all costs' to shape procurement policies in the name of sustainability. (3)
We start, to replace the products derived from commodities Buycott's item - palm oil, GMO soybeans and American meats - with alternative commodities. That they come from supply chain 100% sustainable, traced as such, of which clear and transparent information is offered on the label. Always giving preference to products that come from short supply chains, fair and sustainable. Even better if Bio and sworn by systems of blockchain public.
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) See previous articles on land grabbing and palm oil in Gabon and Congo, to name a couple of examples, on https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/olio-di-palma-e-deforestazioni-nell-eden-dell-africa-coi-soldi-della-banca-mondiale e https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/congo-olio-di-palma-e-colonialismo
(2) We must also avoid the self-referential certifications of hypothetical sustainability of GMO palm and soybeans, which have already proved completely unreliable. See previous articles https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/olio-di-palma-insostenibile-dalle-favole-dei-palmocrati-ai-dati-su-emissioni-di-gas-serra-e-cambiamento-climatico, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/olio-di-palma-insostenibili-bugie-e-connivenze-politiche, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/olio-di-palma-ferrero-sostenibilità, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/olio-di-palma-rapina-delle-terre-e-deforestazioni-un-milione-di-ettari-sfugge-ai-registri-di-rspo-denuncia-la-zoological-society-of-london
(3) In this regard, the ISO Guidelines for the sustainability of procurement, ISO 20400: 2017, are also cited. V. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/iso-20400-linee-guida-per-l-approvvigionamento-da-filiere-sostenibili
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
