Greenpeace has set its sights on UK retailer Tesco, accusing the retailer of 'fanning the flames' of the forest fires in Brazil through its supply chain purchases.
The environmental group released a video on its website, 'Do you know Tesco's burning secret?', in which it alleges that the group 'buys meat from companies owned by Amazon rainforest destroyers, and sells chicken and pork fed on soya from deforested land elsewhere in Brazil'.
It added that while Tesco 'will tell you that it doesn’t buy meat from Brazil', its purchase of meat from Brazilian meat giant JBS, or meat that is reared on soya sourced from Brazil, means that it is 'making a profit out of Amazon destruction'.
Greenpeace claims that 'Tesco are complicit in the fires raging across Brazil, which are causing damage to the people who live there – and the world’s climate'.
It added, 'No company should be making a profit from burning Amazon rainforest. As well as being a rainforest that spans across nine countries and is home to a million Indigenous People, it’s the most biodiverse place on earth – and crucial to protect in the fight against climate change.'
Sustainability Initiatives
For its part, Tesco has announced a number of sustainability initiatives in recent months in a bid to improve the environmental footprint of its supply chain.
In August it announced a scheme to offer a range of subsides to UK dairy farmers that grow feed more sustainably for their livestock, as part of an initiative with the WWF.
And in March, it launched a climate change 'manifesto' ahead of the COP26 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow later this year, announcing its intention to become a net zero emissions business by 2035, and switch to renewable energy across all its operations by 2030.
“In this critical decade for tackling climate change, it’s vital we challenge ourselves to be more ambitious in our aims and accelerate progress against them," CEO Ken Murphy said at the time. "At Tesco, we’re playing our part by creating a better basket for our customers and the planet."
According to the retailer, it delivered a 50% absolute emissions reduction last year on a 2015 baseline, beating its 2020 science-based target of 35%.
Greenpeace has demanded that the retailer 'stops doing business with forest destroyers'.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
