- Blairo Maggi
Blairo Maggi (
São Miguel do Iguaçu , Paraná,29 May 1956 ) is asoy plantation farmer andgovernor of the state ofMato Grosso inBrazil .Maggi also owns the
André Maggi Group , a large company that harvests, processes, and exports soybeans. The Maggi group is also involved in the infrastructure projects that are necessary to sustain the soy industry, notably soy terminals, highways, and waterways.Maggi is the world’s largest soyabean producer. [http://economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8099007] . His accusers hold him responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. His defenders say he is taking Brazil forward. In this respect he is unapologetic, telling the New York Times in 2003:
"To me, a 40 per cent increase in deforestation doesn't mean anything at all, and I don't feel the slightest guilt over what we are doing here. We're talking about an area larger than Europe that has barely been touched, so there is nothing at all to get worried about."
Maggi received the Golden
Chainsaw Award in 2006 fromGreenpeace for being the Brazilian who most contributed to the destruction of theAmazon Rainforest . [http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/soya-king-wins-chainsaw]External links
* [http://www.allbusiness.com/manufacturing/food-manufacturing-grain-oilseed-milling/714302-1.html "Maggi Group and Mato Grosso: a story of two giants", a sympathetic article]
* [http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11756 "Paving the Amazon with Soy", an unsympathetic article]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/international/americas/17BRAZ.html?ex=1379131200&en=d3b8dc0bcec988e8&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND "Relentless Foe of the Amazon Jungle", Larry Rohter, New York Times, September 17, 2003]
* [http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2007/fall/joseph-soy-amazon/ Soy in the Amazon, Pat Joseph, Virginia Quarterly Review, Fall 2007]
* [http://www.grupomaggi.com.br/en/index.jsp Corporate website in English]
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