Cars for cows: Europe's dirty deal with Mercosur putting the planet at risk

The Burning Case

Did you know Latin America was a biodiversity powerhouse with over 30% of the world's fauna and flora? And that about 32 million people in the region identify as Indigenous?
Yet, the area has never been under more pressure. From climate breakdown of course but mostly from man-made ecosystem destruction to secure more land for agriculture. South American countries are indeed big producers of soybeans, beef and eucalyptus that require extensive amount of land to grow, sometimes at the expenses of the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado or other fragile ecosystems, home to countless species of fauna and flora and indigenous communities.
But an already worrying situation (millions of hectares of the Amazon disappear every year to make room for cattle, farming, mining and extractive industries) situation could become even worse if a trade deal between Europe and the countries in the region was implemented, increasing the demand for certain products from the area including beef and soy.
This EU-Mercosur trade deal (with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) has been in the making for the past 20 years. Often negotiated behind closed doors, it's entering the final stages of ratification in 2021, awaiting approval from European countries and the European Parliament.
To better understand what's at stake with this trade deal, what would concretely be the impacts on the local environment but also on indigenous communities right, who are the winner of this trade deal and the role far right politicians have played in it, we've talked to Alberto Villarreal who is a regional coordinator at Friends of the Earth in Uruguay and Azul Schvartzman, a youth climate activist from Argentina. We've also discussed the role of trade agreements in general in a sustainable society and the myths attached to them (more jobs, more economic power) to investigate who they really benefit to.
But as the other negotiating member of this deal is Europe, we've had the pleasure to chat with Anna Cavazzini, who is an MEP with the Greens but also the Vice President of the Brazil delegation. With her we discussed the role of Europe and citizens and what could come next for the agreement now that some countries are starting to refuse to ratify it.
We apologise for the quality of the sound as some of our guests were very far from us but we hope it won't prevent you from enjoying the content!