The fast food restaurant chain Burger King buys soy that is destroying South America's forests to feed the cattle and pigs that end up in the burgers sold around the world. The soy plantations in question are vast and constantly expanding, and they are damaging tropical forests such as the Amazon in Brazil and Bolivia. The accusation has been levelled by the organisation Mighty Earth, which works through international campaigns to protect the environment. The campaign is called The ultimate mistery meat and seeks to expose the link between the hamburgers bought and eaten at Burger King and other fast food chains and the destruction of virgin forests that is fuelling the phenomenon of global warming.

Mighty Earth 🌍 @StandMighty

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What’s @BurgerKing hiding in its mystery meat? Deforestation! RT to tell BK to stop buying from suppliers driving #deforestation.

♥ 25💬 2 26 feb 2017 · Apri su X →

Using drones, satellite images and field research, the report reveals the methods — from bulldozers to arson — that suppliers such as Cargill and Bunge use to raze forests to the ground and make way for soy plantations. The destruction is concentrated above all in the lowland forests of Bolivia and in the Brazilian Cerrado, an area of tropical savanna characterised by extraordinarily rich biodiversity. Indeed, the Cerrado is often described as the most biodiverse place in the world.

The journey of soy, from Cargill to Burger King

"The link is pretty clear. Bunge and Cargill supply grain to Burger King and other major meat retailers. McDonald's, Subway and Kentucky Fried Chicken are not perfect but they are doing much more to protect forests," said Mighty Earth chief executive Glenn Hurowitz. "If Burger King doesn't immediately respond to people who want to know where their food comes from, then they should look elsewhere for their purchases."

Last year 7,989 square kilometres (almost 800,000 hectares, an area almost as large as Umbria) of land were deforested in Brazil, a 29 per cent increase compared to 2015, when the figure stood at 6,207 square kilometres. Bolivia suffered the same negative fate, with 3,508 square kilometres of forest (more than the Valle d'Aosta) disappearing in 2016, compared to an average of 2,700 square kilometres literally going up in smoke each year during the 2000s. Obviously soy is not the sole cause of this disaster, but food-related industries control a large part of the fate of South America's forests.

What Burger King can do for the Amazon

Burger King in particular can do a great deal, according to the Mighty Earth report. The chain has more than 15,000 restaurants spread across around 100 countries worldwide and was acquired in 2010 by the multibillion-dollar Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital for 3.8 billion dollars (around 3.6 billion euros). Among other things, 3G Capital also owns the Kraft Heinz Company, which produces ketchup, cheese and other ready-made food products used by fast food chains, with a turnover of around 10 billion dollars. For this reason, it is essential that Burger King uses its influence positively by putting pressure on the company it belongs to and on suppliers such as Cargill to push them towards adopting policies against deforestation and the exploitation of natural resources from the planet's lungs. Cargill itself — which works with around 15,000 farmers who grow soy — wanted to have its say when approached by the British daily the Guardian, which picked up the story of the report, stating that it intends to halve its impact on forests between 2020 and 2030.

The organisation Mighty Earth has decided to launch a petition against the "kings of deforestation" and to ensure that a moratorium on the expansion of soy plantations is adopted across Latin America, as well as "supporting the expansion of sustainable agriculture."