US food giant Bunge accused over biofuel ‘tainted with Indian blood’
14 Nov 2012
US food giant Bunge has been implicated in a sugarcane scandal in Brazil that has kept an entire indigenous community off its land, polluted streams and inflicted illness and death on Guarani Indians.
Headquartered in the US, global grain trader Bunge is deeply involved in Brazil's burgeoning biofuels market, and sources sugarcane from farmers who have taken over ancestral land of the Guarani.
A community of Guarani in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, whose land was taken from them to make way for the plantations, says the invasion of sugarcane, associated machinery and pesticides has ruined their lives over the past four years.
Two Guarani from Jata Yvary community have already committed suicide this year. The boys, aged 16 and 13, were found hanging from trees. A truck from the plantations used by Bunge also reportedly ran over and killed a man.
The community says, "We Guarani don't want sugarcane planted on our land anymore…it harms our health, including the health of our children, and elderly people, and the poison contaminates the water."
The Guarani say pesticides sprayed from planes land on their community, and discarded machinery and crops have been left to rust and rot in streams they rely on for water.