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<title><![CDATA[amazon agriculture news from mongabay.com]]></title>
<link>http://www.mongabay.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[amazon agriculture news.]]></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright 2006 mongabay.com</copyright>
<pubDate>Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:58:39 -0800</pubDate>
<item>
<title><![CDATA['Soy King' says Amazon deforestation could help solve global food crisis]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Clearing the Amazon rainforest for soy farms will help address the global food crisis, said Blairo Maggi, the governor of Brazil's chief soy-producing state, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0428-brazil.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0428-brazil.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Brazil prepares to launch attack on NGOs working in the Amazon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brazil is planning a crackdown on foreign NGOs working in the Amazon rainforest, reports Reuters.  Tourists may also be required to inform officials of their travel plans in the region under the newly proposed rule.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0428-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0428-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Cheap ranch loans may be driving jump in Amazon deforestation]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Surging deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon may be partly the result of new financial incentives given by state banks such as the Bank of Amazon (BASA), reports Agencia de Noticias da Amazonia, a Brazilian newspaper, and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO).]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0212-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0212-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Subtle threats could ruin the Amazon rainforest]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[While the mention of Amazon destruction usually conjures up images of vast stretches of felled and burned rainforest trees, cattle ranches, and vast soybean farms, some of the biggest threats to the Amazon rainforest are barely perceptible from above.  Selective logging -- which opens up the forest canopy and allows winds and sunlight to dry leaf litter on the forest floor -- and 6-inch high "surface" fires are turning parts of the Amazon into a tinderbox, putting the world's largest rainforest at risk of ever-more severe forest fires.  At the same time, market-driven hunting is impoverishing some areas of seed dispersers and predators, making it more difficult for forests to recover. Climate change -- an its forecast impacts on the Amazon basin -- further looms large over the horizon.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1107-interview_carlos_peres.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1107-interview_carlos_peres.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Is the Amazon more valuable for carbon offsets than cattle or soy?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[After a steep drop in deforestation rates since 2004, widespread fires in the Brazilian Amazon (September and October 2007) suggest that forest clearing may increase this year.  All told, since 2000 Brazil has lost more than 60,000 square miles (150,000 square kilometers) of rainforest -- an area larger than the state of Georgia or the country of Bangladesh.  Most of this destruction has been driven by clearing for cattle pasture and agriculture, often in association with infrastructure development and improvements.  Higher commodity prices, especially for beef and soy, have further spurred forest conversion in the region. While drivers of Amazon deforestation are stronger than ever, mounting concerns over climate change and the effort to reign in greenhouse gas emissions may provide new economic incentives for landowners to preserve forest lands through a concept known as "avoided deforestation".]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1017-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1017-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[China urged to join sustainable soy efforts in the Amazon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brazilian soy crushers have urged China to join an alliance to promote sustainable soybean production in the Amazon, according to Reuters. Brazil, soon to be the world's largest producer of soybeans, recently formed the Global Roundtable on Responsible Soy Association as concerns grow that global demand for biofuels will level the Amazon rainforest.  Environmentalists say demand from China is playing an important role in surging soybean production in the region.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0912-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0912-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Scientists demand Brazil cease Amazon colonization project]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A group of prominent scientists has called on Brazil to declare an immediate moratorium on a proposed forest colonization project that threatens one of the world's largest and long-running ecological experiments.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0827-atbc.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0827-atbc.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon deforestation in Brazil falls 29% for 2007]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell 29 percent for the 2006-2007 year, compared with the prior period.  The loss of 3,863 square miles (10,010 square kilometers) of rainforest was the lowest since the Brazilian government started tracking deforestation on a yearly basis in 1988.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0813-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0813-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon deforestation rate falls to lowest on record]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon for the previous year were the lowest on record, according to preliminary figures released by INPE, Brazil's National Institute of Space Research.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0810-amazon_deforestation.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0810-amazon_deforestation.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[US says Brazilian ethanol doesn't increase food prices, destroy Amazon rainforest]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brazil's surging ethanol production does not put the Amazon rainforest at risk and is not fueling higher food prices, claimed a U.S. energy official visiting Brazil.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0713-ethanol.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0713-ethanol.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The men charged with the 2005 killing of University of Vermont anthropology professor James Petersen in the Amazon rainforest were sentenced Tuesday to nearly 30 years in prison, close to the maximum under Brazilian law.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0712-petersen.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0712-petersen.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Leading Amazon biologist imprisoned in Brazil; witch-hunt suspected]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A world-renowned primatologist has been arrested in the Brazilian Amazon under charges that he was illegal sheltering 28 primates in his home, according to The Guardian. Supporters say Marc van Roosmalen, 60, has been framed by illegal loggers who have long been adversaries of the prominent conservationist.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0623-roosmalen.html</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0623-roosmalen.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon deforestation rates fall 89% for 2007]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Deforestation rates fell by 89 percent in the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso for April 2007 compared with April 2006, according to the System Alert for Deforestation, an innovative deforestation monitoring program backed from Brazilian NGO Imazon. Mato Grosso, which has suffered some of the highest rates of deforestation of any state in the Brazilian Amazon, lost 2,268 square kilometers of forest between August 2006 and April 2007, a decline of 62 percent from the year earlier period when 5,968 square kilometers were cleared.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-mato_grosso.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-mato_grosso.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon tribe blocks major Brazilian highway]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Indigenous Amazonians have blocked a major highway in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to protest a series of hydroelectric dams planned on the Xingu river, one of the Amazon's largest tributaries, according to Brazzil Mag and Survival International.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-xingu.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-xingu.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Archer Daniels Midland announces Amazon biodiesel plant start date]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) plans to start operation of its $20 million biodiesel in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in early August, a company official said this week, according to MarketWatch.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-adm.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-adm.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Dorothy Stang fought for social equity in the Amazon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Murder is not a pleasant place to start an article. Destruction of enormous amounts of virgin forest also does not help improve ones feelings and thoughts. Leaving out millions of people and talking about only the rights of thousands is pretty discouraging if you wish to be transparent, progressive and see a future for a beautiful country with enormous potential.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0607-david_stang.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0607-david_stang.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Can cattle ranchers and soy farmers save the Amazon?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[John Cain Carter, a Texas rancher who moved to the heart of the Amazon 11 years ago and founded what is perhaps the most innovative organization working in the Amazon, Alianca da Terra, believes the only way to save the Amazon is through the market.  Carter says that by giving producers incentives to reduce their impact on the forest, the market can succeed where conservation efforts have failed.  What is most remarkable about Alianca's system is that it has the potential to be applied to any commodity anywhere in the world. That means palm oil in Borneo could be certified just as easily as sugar cane in Brazil or sheep in New Zealand.  By addressing the supply chain, tracing agricultural products back to the specific fields where they were produced, the system offers perhaps the best market-based solution to combating deforestation.  Combining these approaches with large-scale land conservation and scientific research offers what may be the best hope for saving the Amazon.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0607-carter_interview.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0607-carter_interview.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Globalization could save the Amazon rainforest]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The Amazon basin is home to the world's largest rainforest, an ecosystem that supports perhaps 30 percent of the world's terrestrial species, stores vast amounts of carbon, and exerts considerable influence on global weather patterns and climate. Few would dispute that it is one of the planet's most important landscapes. Despite its scale, the Amazon is also one of the fastest changing ecosystems, largely as a result of human activities, including deforestation, forest fires, and, increasingly, climate change. Few people understand these impacts better than Dr. Daniel Nepstad, one of the world's foremost experts on the Amazon rainforest. Now head of the Woods Hole Research Center's Amazon program in Belem, Brazil, Nepstad has spent more than 23 years in the Amazon, studying subjects ranging from forest fires and forest management policy to sustainable development. Nepstad says the Amazon is presently at a point unlike any he's ever seen, one where there are unparalleled risks and opportunities. While he's hopeful about some of the trends, he knows the Amazon faces difficult and immediate challenges.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-nepstad_interview.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 03 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-nepstad_interview.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Rural population decline may not slow deforestation]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A new paper shoots down the theory that increasing urbanization will lead to increasing forest cover in the tropics. Writing in the July issue of the journal Biotropica, Sean Sloan, a researcher from McGill University in Montreal, argues that anticipated declines in rural populations via urbanization will not necessarily result in reforestation--a scenario put forth in a controversial paper published in Biotropica last year by Joseph Wright of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Helene Muller-Landau of the University of Minnesota. Wright and Muller-Landau said that deforestation rates will likely slow, then reverse, due to declining rural population density in developing countries.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0603-stri.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 03 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0603-stri.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[U.S. ethanol may drive Amazon deforestation]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Ethanol production in the United States may be contributing to deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest said a leading expert on the Amazon. Dr. Daniel Nepstad of the Woods Hole Research Center said the growing demand for corn ethanol means that more corn and less soy is being planted in the United States.  Brazil, the world's largest producer of soybeans, is more than making up for shortfall, by clearing new land for soy cultivation.  While only a fraction of this cultivation currently occurs in the Amazon rainforest, production in neighboring areas like the cerrado grassland helps drive deforestation by displacing small farmers and cattle producers, who then clear rainforest land for subsistence agriculture and pasture.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0516-ethanol_amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0516-ethanol_amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Ancient Amazonian technology could save the world]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Terra preta, the ancient charcoal-based soil used by ancient Amazonians to create permanently fertile agricultural lands in the rainforest, is getting serious consideration as a means to fight global warming and meet domestic energy demand, reports an article in Scientific American.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0517-terra_preta.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0517-terra_preta.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Soybeans may worsen drought in the Amazon rainforest]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The rapid expansion of soybean cultivation in the Amazon may be having a larger impact on climate than previously believed, according to research published last week in Geophysical Research Letters. Using experimental plots in the Amazon, a team of scientists led by Marcos Costa from the Federal University of Vicosa in Brazil found that clearing for soybeans increases the reflectivity or albedo of land, reducing rainfall by as much as four times relative to clearing for pasture land.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0418-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Apr 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0418-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Indigenous populations deforested New World rainforests before European contact]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Indigenous populations used fire to clear large areas of tropical forest well before the arrival of Europeans reports a new study published in Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden.  The research has important implications for understanding the impact of present forest development on biodiversity and forest regeneration in the tropics.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0228-stri.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0228-stri.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Biofuels, logging may spur deforestation in Guyana]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Growing timber exports and rising interest in biofuels are raising concerns that deforestation could accelerate in the South American country of Guyana. Guyana is a small, lightly populated country on the north coast of South America. About three-quarters of Guyana is forested, roughly 60 percent of which is classified as primary forest. Guyana's forests are highly diverse: the country has some 1,263 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles, and 6,409 species of plants.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0215-guyana.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0215-guyana.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[New maps reveal causes of Amazon deforestation]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brazil's National Statistics Office (IBGE) released a set of maps showing how farmers are converting the Amazon rainforest into cattle pasture and soybean farms. The maps show for the first time the impact of deforestation and agricultural expansion on the Amazon rainforest, according to the agency.
]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0126-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0126-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[A better way to cut down the Amazon rainforest?]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A new study suggests that deforestation that follows a "fishbone" pattern may be less damaging from an environmental standpoint than traditional clear-cutting.  The reason?  Fishbone deforestation patterns may create conditions that increase precipitation levels which help cleared vegetation recover quicker. The research, which will be presented this week by Somnath Baidya Roy, a professor of atmospheric sciences at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, is based on analysis of deforestation in Rondonia, a state in Brazil where the "establishment of rural development projects has resulted in the construction of orthogonal road networks."  Deforestation, which typically follows road and highway construction, has progressed in a fishbone pattern.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1211-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Dec 2006 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1211-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Brazil claims soy and beef not responsible for Amazon deforestation]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brazil rejected claims that soybean farms and cattle pasture were destroying the Amazon rainforest, according to a report from Reuters.  At the opening of an organic food products fair in Sao Paulo, Agriculture Minister Luis Carlos Guedes Pinto said that only 0.27 percent of Brazil's soybean crop is grown in the Amazon region, while less than 1.5 percent of Brazil's beef for export comes from the rainforest.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1026-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 26 Oct 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1026-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Expansion of agriculture in the Amazon may impact climate]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A new study from NASA scientists shows that forest clearing for large-scale agriculture has recently become a significant cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.  The researchers warn that this change in land use may affect the region' climate and the Amazon's ability to absorb carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0919-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Sep 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0919-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon soy becomes greener]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Brazilian soy crushers and exporters will implement a two-year moratorium on trading soybeans grown on newly deforested lands in the Amazon basin.  The governance program takes effect in October 2006 and applies only to forest cleared after that date.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0725-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0725-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon Port Pits Farmers Vs. Rainforest]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[When U.S. grain giant Cargill opened a $20 million port in this sleepy Amazon River city three years ago, it expected to cash in on the rising global demand for soybeans that had become Brazil's richest agricultural export.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0718-ap.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0718-ap.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Hudson Institute calls Amazon savanna biome a wasteland]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[In an April 21st, 2006 editorial published in the Canada Free Press Dennis T. Avery, senior fellow for Hudson Institute in Washington, DC and the Director for Global Food Issues, called Brazil's cerrado ecosystem a "wasteland" and criticized a recent report from the environmental activist group Greenpeace that linked Amazon deforestation to soy-based animal feed used by fast-food chains in Europe.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0423-hudson.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 23 Apr 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0423-hudson.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Greenpeace accuses McDonald's of destroying the Amazon rainforest]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[After a year-long investigation, environmental group Greenpeace has accused McDonald's and other western firms of contributing to deforestation in the Amazon. Greenpeace's report, published today, alleges that much of the soy-based animal feed used by fast-food chains to fatten chickens is derived from soybeans grown in the Amazon Basin of Brazil. Thanks to a new variety of soybean developed by Brazilian scientists to flourish in rainforest climate, soybean production has boomed in the region in recent years as firms have converted extensive areas of rainforest and cerrado, a savanna-like ecosystem, into industrial soybean farms. High soybean prices have also served as an impetus to expanding soybean cultivation and Brazil is on the verge of supplanting the United States as the world's leading exporter of soybeans.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0406-greenpeace.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0406-greenpeace.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Pre-Columbian Amazon supported millions of people]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Controversial evidence uncovered over the past decade suggests that the Amazon rainforest was once home to large sedentary populations of people. Besides the well-known empires of the Inca and their predecessors, the Huari, millions of people once lived in the forests and shaped the environment to suit their own needs.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1017-amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1017-amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon deforestation lower than last year says Brazil]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Yesterday Brazil announced that 3,515 square miles (9,103 square kilometers) of Amazon rainforest were destroyed between August 2004 and July 2005, a marked decline from the 7,229 sq. mi. (18,723 sq. km.) in the same period a year earlier. While the government has tried to take credit for the drop, analysts say the slowing is more likely the result of lower commodity prices, giving farmers less incentive to clear forest land.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0827-brazil.html</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Aug 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0827-brazil.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Brazil's growth as agricultural giant has cost -- LA Times]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Saturday, the Los Angeles Times featured an article on Brazil's drive to become an agricultural giant. The country's breakneck growth has made it the world's biggest exporter of many agricultural products, but at a cost: some of Brazil's richest ecological areas have been plowed under for crops. Brazil has the highest biological diversity of any country on Earth.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0822-la_times_amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 22 Aug 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0822-la_times_amazon.html</guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Brazil's grasslands could replace food production of American heartland]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Today when people mention Brazil and agriculture, people often first envision the Amazon rainforest giving way to soybean plantations and cattle farms. While the Amazon is being converted for such purposes, the cerrado, a vast area of savanna-like grasslands covering more than 20% of the country's surface area, is increasingly under threat as farmers from the United States and Europe are setting their sights on the country's sizeable agricultural potential.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0801-tina_butler.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0801-tina_butler.html</guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Rainforest loss in the Amazon tops 200,000 square miles, new figures from Brazilian government]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[New figures from the Brazilian government show that 10,088 square miles of rain forest were destroyed in the 12 months ending in August 2004. Deforestation in the Amazon in 2004 was the second worst ever as rain forest was cleared for cattle ranches and soy farms.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0521-rhett_butler.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 May 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0521-rhett_butler.html</guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Farmers and landless poor battle over the Amazon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Land battles in Brazil's countryside reached the highest level in at least 20 years in 2004 as activists clashed with farmers and loggers advancing on savanna and Amazon rain forest, a nongovernmental group said Tuesday.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0423-reuters.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0423-reuters.html</guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Chinese economy drives road-building and deforestation in the Amazon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Chinese economy drives road-building and deforestation in the Amazon]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0417a-tina_butler.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 17 Apr 2005 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0417a-tina_butler.html</guid>
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