WWF is under fire from fellow NGOs for it’s strategy of engaging with soy bean producers and stakeholders including GM soy companies such as the much-maligned Monsanto.

Soy bean production is a major cause of deforestation in the Amazon with vast areas being cleared for soy monoculture, 90% of which is used for beef cattle production.

WWF belief is that it is better to engage with producers and attempt to make incremental improvements to their environmental records than to oppose and leave them free to carry on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

To this aim, WWF created the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) comprising producers, finance, trade reps, NGOs and certification bodies.

Since 2004, the RFRS has held a series of stakeholder meetings to ‘promote responsible soy production irrespective of the type of production model’  and to develop a label to certify such soy as ‘responsible’.

Fundamental to this is a commitment to not clear any further areas of rainforest – the primary concern of WWF and other NGOs. However, other NGOs such as Friends of the Earth oppose any engagement as it provides ‘greenwash’ opportunities for corporations with highly dubious environmental records especially those committed to the spread of GM such as Monsanto.

60% of the soy grown in the Amazon region uses Monsanto’s GM soy bean seeds. And whilst WWF opposes GM in principle it believes that “by developing standards with other stakeholders, we can have a far greater impact than by refusing to participate”

Read the full story on the Ecologist website