Industrial Agriculture is Fueling the Crisis in the Amazon

Dr. Bronner’s is Matching Donations to Amazon Watch this Month

For the last couple of weeks, the news has been full of stories about fires in the Amazon rainforest. Record numbers of fires have been lit this year, numbering over 70,000—an 84% increase over last year. Industrial agriculture in the Amazon, which includes cattle ranching along with vast monoculture soy and palm plantations, has been driving new deforestation in the region. Similarly, mining and logging activities contribute to the destruction of the rainforest and displacement of local people.

The fires we’re seeing now are a direct result of these extractive industries and the deforestation they cause, in combination with a warming climate that makes the Amazon more vulnerable. While Amazon fires and destruction have declined in recent years, the election of President Jair Bolsanaro has led to a renewed effort to exploit the Amazon, roll back environmental laws and revoke indigenous land rights.

Indigenous people are on the front lines of rainforest survival, but every year dozens are killed protecting the Amazon from the deforestation caused by industrial agriculture and extractive industries. It is critical to ensure the rights of indigenous peoples while holding corporate interests accountable in order to protect the Amazon for generations to come.

That’s why Dr. Bronner’s is matching all donations to Amazon Watch—a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Amazon’s ecological systems and providing direct support for indigenous communities fighting to defend their rights and territories.  We can do twice as much together: for every dollar you donate, we’ll match it—up to $10,000.

Click here to donate what you can (if you choose to donate via PayPal please write “Dr. Bronner’s” in the box provided): http://bit.ly/amazonwatchdonate

A Better Way Forward

Dr. Bronner’s has explicitly sought a different approach to sourcing raw materials. We work closely with thousands of smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific to implement regenerative organic practices. Dr. Bronner’s key raw materials—like coconut oil, palm oil and peppermint oil—come from certified organic and fair trade smallholder farmers. In addition, by nurturing soil health, regenerative organic agriculture can actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the farm and sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

Core to our approach is the development and support of dynamic, multi-strata agroforestry systems that mimic natural, biodiverse forests, while diversifying farmer income, stabilizing the local microclimate, and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Dynamic agroforestry systems optimize natural systems and can actually produce more food, fiber, firewood and medicinal plants than their industrial, monoculture counterparts. Practiced on a large scale, regenerative dynamic agroforestry can preserve natural forests by producing more food on less land.

We also support many organizations advocating for a transition to plant-based diets away from a reliance on factory farming and the exploitation of the land and animals that is inherent in industrial animal agriculture. We offer free, plant-based meals to our over 200 staff each day to encourage the transition to more sustainable and environmentally friendly diets. As a company we feel a responsibility to model constructive ways of doing business, and more compassionate and conscious ways of existing in the world.

— David and Michael Bronner on behalf of Dr. Bronner’s
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Dr. Bronner's

Dr. Bronner’s is a family business committed to honoring the vision of our founder Dr. E.H. Bronner by making socially and environmentally responsible products of the highest quality, and by dedicating our profits to helping make a better world. “All-One!”

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