ACTIVISTS RALLY AT STOP & SHOP IN SUPPORT OF AMAZON FOREST PROTECTION

A coalition of local organizations welcomed to the Valley, Brazilian indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara, National Coordinator for the organization Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) on February 13. . Guajajara first gave a talk at Smith College and followed it up with a rally at a Northampton  Stop & Shop to demand that meat be produced using sustainable practices. APIB represents more than 300 different Brazilian ethnic groups calling for international solidarity to stop the environmental destruction promoted by Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil. Activists from Extinction Rebellion Western Massachusetts, Divest Smith College, Mighty Earth Pioneer Valley, and Western Mass Committee for Democracy in Brazil were in attendance. 

Mighty Earth is calling on Stop & Shop to cut ties with global food producer and distributor Cargill (the largest privately held company in the United States), and stands with indigenous Amazonian communities fighting to protect their home and one of the most important forests in the world. According to the organization, industrial meat production has a bigger impact on the environment than almost any other human activity. For this reason, Mighty Earth calls on Stop and Shop to  cut its contract with Cargill and uphold their own sustainability standards

“Agribusinesses in Brazil are causing unprecedented damage to the forest, are breaking laws, and are threatening the Indigenous Peoples’ land and lives,” said Luiz Horta, a member of the Western Mass. Committee for Democracy in Brazil.. “The international community needs to act to hold the agribusinesses accountable.” Horta urged Americans to boycott Brazilian agribusinesses in order to hinder environmental destruction in Brazil.

Extinction Rebellion is a global movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimize the risk of social collapse. To learn more about Extinction Rebellion in Western Massachusetts look here.  

Western Mass. Committee for Democracy in Brazil aims to raise awareness of the crisis in Brazilian democratic institutions, which has resulted in the election Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right president, and to help unveil the connections between U.S. President Donald Trump and the current Brazilian government’s policies. To learn more look here.

Mighty Earth is a global organization that works to protect the environment by focusing on defending threatened landscapes and wildlife, protecting our oceans, and halting climate change. It is a fiscally-sponsored project of the Center for International Policy, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Divest Smith College is a student-led climate justice organization at Smith College whose mission is to align the college’s investments with its community’s morals, primarily through advocating for fossil fuel divestment.

 Hayley Berliner is a field organizer for Mighty Earth