101 Park Ave
New York, NY 10017
USA
NYC Vigil for the Amazon: End Corporate Deforestation
Monday, September 23, 2019
6:00 – 7:00 pm
4pm: Join to hold signs as attendees enter the forum
6pm: Join for the Vigil as attendees leave the forum (main event)
The Amazon is in flames and the lungs of our planet are turning to ash.
We know who’s at fault. It’s the large agribusiness interests that are bankrolling Bolsonaro and profiting off the destruction of forests to expand their corporate empires.
Ten years ago many of the world’s largest and most trusted brands pledged to end deforestation across their supply chains by 2020. Yet they are continuing to buy from the same agribusiness suppliers that are consistently at the frontlines of deforestation — financing this devastation with your money.
According to breaking research featured last month in the New York Times, if 20-25% of the Amazon is destroyed, the rain patterns will be so drastically altered that the rest of the rainforest will become a barren savannah. We are now at 19.3%.
Forests around the world are suffocating as corporate agribusiness interests take control of policymakers and burn the land for their profits.
It’s time for companies that have made 2020 no-deforestation commitments to immediately suspend contracts with those suppliers that are continuing to destroy forests.
On Monday, 9/23 the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) meets in New York. The CGF is a body comprised of 400 of the top global companies that have pledged to end deforestation by 2020. Tragically, many of the members are deeply complicit in – and profiting from – the purposeful burning of the Amazon. One member, Cargill, even sent a letter to its suppliers encouraging them to clear more land. Other member companies such as Walmart and Costco source a large percentage of their meat from the suppliers that are incentivizing deforestation like Cargill and JBS — and thus are tied to the burning of the Amazon as well.
We will converge on the Consumer Goods Forum to hold a Vigil for the Amazon and demand member companies to immediately cut all ties to deforestation.
