International

Inhabitants of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul are being driven out by violent means by people occupying lands on which the indigenous people have lived since time immemorial. The aim of the land thieves is to institute large-scale cultivation of soya and sugar cane. The Brazilian authorities have taken no action against the thefts.

European market

The original inhabitants of the land are being deprived by dispossession of any means of livelihood. The aim behind the thefts is the setting up of industrial cultivation of new crops such as soya and sugar cane. Some of this will be fed to Dutch pigs, while the indigenous population of Indians in Mato Grosso do Sul goes hungry.

Quantity

SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard has asked the European Commission how much of the illegally cultivated soya and sugar cane is finding its way on to the European market. She also wants to know what can be done to address the problem by means of import measures in order to allow the people of the affected areas to regain their livelihoods.