During the recent dry season, there was a 77 percent year-to-year increase in fires in Brazil, typically started for land clearing and eventual natural resource exploitation. Ecologist Cassie Freund at Wake Forest University blamed the U.S. by saying, “There’s a straight line from Trump’s trade war with China to the destruction of the Amazon.” In other words, China buying South American soybeans instead of U.S. product has precipitated the area expansion effort in Brazil. First, it should be noted that over the past couple of decades, Brazil’s soybean production area expanded an average 5.11 percent per year. However, the expansion has been at a slower level in more recent years. Given this year’s fires,...

TAGS – Soy & Oilseeds, China, North America, South America