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corn are grown in states like Mato Grosso, Mato not tearing up sensitive lands. About 40% of the
Grosso do Sul and Goiás. soybeans ADM sources from Brazil are grown
in the Cerrado and it is now directly monitoring
There are wooded areas, wetlands, but “nearly
half of the biome’s native vegetation has been roughly 90% of those farms.
lost” due to “robust economic activity,” accord-
ing to an analysis by the Soft Commodities US farmers try to sell sustainability
Forum, a global alliance formed by some of the to the EU
world’s largest agricultural commodity trad- Thousands of miles to the north, American farm-
ing companies. They include Bunge, Cargill, ers are largely content with the results of years
Glencore, Louis Dreyfus and China’s COFCO. of work to show the world that U.S. farms are

“The Cerrado region of Brazil plays a signifi- some of the most sustainable operations on the
cant role globally for both people and nature, globe and that U.S. farmers are already some of
including climate change mitigation, biodiver- the most conscientious caretakers. For almost 40
sity, and freshwater systems,” the companies said years, the majority of U.S. farmers have adhered
in their latest joint release that was published to conservation compliance rules, which require
by ADM and the World Business Council for producers to meet minimum levels of conserva-
Sustainable Development. tion on highly erodible land and not to convert
wetlands to crop production – if they want to
be eligible for USDA program
payments.
Our .soy .has .a .great .
track .record .from .an . “Since the early 1900s, for-

environmental .perspective . est land in the United States
has remained pretty stable,”
and .from .a .sustainability . USSEC’s Sutter told Agri-Pulse.
perspective . “Actually, according to USDA
statistics, between 1982 and
—Jim Sutter, .USSEC 2015, we’ve actually increased

the number of acres of forest
land in the U.S. by 5 million
“However, the extent and pace of native vege- acres. Since 1982, we have also seen a decrease
tation loss resulting from agricultural expansion in crop land by just over 50 million acres.”
in the Cerrado poses a significant threat to these
social, environmental and economic values.” As far as land use is concerned, this means that
domestic and international feed and food pro-
More than 70% of the soybeans sourced by ducers don’t have to worry that U.S. soy is con-
ADM in South America are grown in Brazil and tributing to the degradation of the environment,
the company started up its “no deforestation” says Sutter.
effort in 2015 to eventually certify that all of its
soybean supply chain would be free from the But even though that may seem obvious to
taint of deforestation through intense monitor- farmers in the U.S., exporters that depend on
ing and traceability programs. marketing soy products to the rest of the world
need proof to show buyers from Lisbon to
By 2018, the company began using digital satel- Tokyo, said Sutter. So, the council set out to arm
lite farm maps to certify that its suppliers were exporters with data.

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