In the morning of March 16, a group of 25 activist had a go at animal feed company Provimi in the Rotterdam Harbour. Provimi, a world leader in animal feed business, is also a major consumer of soy from South America. The action was organised on the first day of the 'Iguazu Counter Conference' against the greenwashing of the soy industry, organised by Via Campesina Argentina and GRR (Grupo de Reflexion Rural). The activists wanted to point out the role of the North, again exploiting South America's natural
resources and people.

Banner drop
The action was organised by ASEED Europe and XminY Solidarity Fund. Six climbers managed to get on the roof of a lower part of the company building.
They carried a huge banner saying 'No Soy for Factory Farming', and dropped it from the back side, from where it was visible from the wide surroundings.
The press had collected on the other side of the water, from which it had a great view on the action.
When the banner was dropped succesfully, and some of the press had made its way to the front side of the building, There, a 'civil soy inspection'was taking place. Three inspectors had a close look at the building and were
looking for evidence of use of highly unsustainable soy.

Civil Soy Inspection
A sambaband and a second banner saying 'Soy: Disaster for South AND North' were posted in front of the gates, attraction the attention of many people from the neighbourhood.

Soon, a communication officer of Provimi came out and urged people out the gates. He was clearly not pleased to be confronted with cameras and difficult questions. He was saying that:
- Provimi does a lot of research into new animal feed products to reduce the waste coming from the animals fed on it, reducing environmental pollution in the Netherlands.

We pointed to the massive environmental destruction going on in South America because of soy production, and social injustice related to it. Working on less pollution of factory farms here means working WITH factory
farms, not to reduce them.

- Provimi does not use that much soy. He was not able to give figures, but promised to do so, 'outside the publicity'. We had already sent a list of questions to the company, but no response so far. Scholtmans said he was
still 'working on it'.

We said to be happy to see the figures

- The activists could have chosen much better targets (not saying which), and blaming EU rules limiting EU production of animal feed (true, but nothing more dull and ineffective than protesting in Brussels is there?)
It is always easy to point to the others.
Chinese markets are growing so fast that EU use is coming less relevant.

We said we are not in China, and that before blaming anyone else, we have to start confronting the causes at home first.

- He also asked if this was an antigeneticx action
We said that GM soy poses specific problems, like the control over seed material. But conventional soy production is no different in causing great problems like soil degradation, rural unemployment, and rural livelihoods
being destroyed.

Press:
Eight press people had collected. A big picture of the banner drop appeared the same day in the economics section of NRC Handelsblad, a quality daily national newspaper, the next day in Rotterdam Daily with article, and it became a Rotterdam TV item.

Background: Soy and Greenwash
The action aims to bring media and public attention to an almost forgotten problem: the huge soy production in Latin America. The EU imports around 37 million tonnes of soy each year, 80% of which is from that region, and is mainly used as animal feed for the factory farms.

Many NGOs have been trying to address the issue over the last few years. The action, organised by ASEED Europe and XminusY Solidarity Fund, takes place on the same day as the start of two conferences on soy production in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil. Peasants´ movements and political grassroots groups
from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are gathering there for a counter-conference. They are assembling in opposition to the second conference, the Business Round Table on "Sustainable Soy" lead by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) together with agribusiness corporations such
as Unilever and the Andre Maggi Group.
(See Counter Conference  http://iguazu.grr.org.ar, Round Table: www.sustainablesoy.org)

They claim that the Round Table fails to address the root causes of the problem, and only serves to greenwash the soy industry, respresented in the Round Table a.o. by Unilever and Andre Maggi Group. The Round Table does not fundamentally question the 'soy model' or the increasing dependency of South American economies, they say, and therefore the term 'sustainable' is being severely abused.