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Killing Fields: the battle to feed factory farms

Few people realise that a hidden chain of destruction stretches from factory farms in Europe to the forests of South America – where huge soy plantations are wiping out wildlife and making climate change worse. Soy, grown to feed chickens, cows and pigs in Europe, now covers over 11 million hectares in South America – an area equivalent to all the arable farmland in Germany – and demand is growing fast.

To make way for soy plantations, thousands of people are being forced from their land and with it, losing their ability to grow their own food. Indigenous people are being evicted and forests are being cleared.

Many of the soybeans are genetically modified and massively increase the use of pesticides – resulting in the poisoning of rural communities, water sources and the natural environment.

Meanwhile in Europe small scale farming – that is good for people and the environment – is losing out to big business.

This ground breaking film investigates the impacts of growing soy in South America to feed factory farms in Europe. This campaign gives those people unwittingly caught up in this damaging chain hope that they can break out of it.

“The doctor arrived and he looked at Silvino and said to me, your son is completely poisoned with dangerous toxic chemicals. I was crying, desperately crying. Silvino could no longer walk and then was completely paralysed, at 3 o’clock Silvino died. He couldn’t hold on any longer.”

Petrona Villasboa, mother of Silvino Talavera, Paraguay