Brazilian Soy King Wins Golden Chainsaw Award
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 06.22.05
Greenpeace's online contest to determine who was most deserving of the Golden Chainsaw Award for Amazon forest destruction is over, the results are in, and the winner is Blairo Maggi with 37% of the vote (10,348 votes). He is the governor of the Mato Grosso state in Brazil and a very important soy producer. Under his administration, the state became number one at deforestation with 48% of total forest loss in the Amazon between 2003-2004. Brazilian president Lula da Silva came in second with 26% of the vote (7,314).
Three comedians from a popular TV show in Brazil, Pânico na TV (Panic on TV) tried to deliver the Golden Chainsaw statuette to Blairo Maggi on Wednesday at a school in Cuiabá, capital of Mato Grosso. However the State Governor refused to accept the award and the presenters were removed from the school by security. More than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children, responded to this eviction by calling on Maggi to show up and accept the statuette, shouting: "Maggi, Maggi… Accept it, accept it" and "Protect nature." But to their disappointment, Maggi had left through a back door. [...]
The other nominees for the person who most contributed to record levels of Amazon destruction were the Federal Ministers José Dirceu (Civil House), Antonio Palocci (Treasury) and Roberto Rodrigues (Agriculture) and the Governor of the Para State Simão Jatene.
During 2003-2004, 26,130 square kilometers of the Amazon forest were cut down, the second biggest yearly loss of forest in Brazilian history.
::'Soya King' wins Golden Chainsaw award, ::Golden Chainsaw Results
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Acccoring to cropwatch:
"In the wake of the Mad Cow disease scare, soy producers have benefited from increased demand in affluent countries for meat from cows that are fed soy meal, rather than animal-based feed.
...Blairo Maggi, the owner of the Maggi group, who is also known as the rei da soja -- the Soybean King. In fact, the Maggi Group is the largest private soy producer in the world. The company grossed $600 million in sales this year, primarily managing the production, trade and processing of over 2 million tons of soy, most of it destined for livestock in Europe and Asia."
So it is not the "soy that much of the world associates with the ostensibly eco-friendly, vegetarian diet".
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11756
"So it is not the "soy that much of the world associates with the ostensibly eco-friendly, vegetarian diet"."
I think you've got to be careful with that; it definitely is more ecological to have a vegetarian diet and to eat the soy directly than to grow the soy, feed a cow for 5-6 years with it, then eat the cow. Eating lower on the food-chain is A LOT more efficient.
This article makes some good points:
http://www.alternet.org/story/12162
Sorry Steve, I think I had misread your comment above. If so, disregard my reply.