Day One.
The Soy Hub
An overview of the latest thinking and doing on responsible soy The RT14 afternoon session began with a series of quick-fire presentations on new developments, initiatives and technologies helping to progress responsible soy.
Soy Toolkit Pedro Amaral from Proforest took delegates through their work on a ‘soy toolkit’ that helps companies understand which tools and initiatives are out there to help them source responsible soy. With a fast-evolving ecosystem of initiatives in the marketplace, according to Amaral, it can be daunting to keep track of everything that’s going on, even for those dedicated to the area. The toolkit has five key elements: assess and plan; understanding supply chain risk; supplier engagement; purchase control systems; and monitoring, verifying and reporting. www.soytoolkit.net
Grupo de Trabalho do Cerrado (GTC) An overview of 2.5 years of work around the GTC was presented by James Allen of Olab (also RT14 facilitator), Frederico Machado from WWF Brazil and Renata Nogueira from Cargill. Os integrantes do GTC têm trabalhado juntos para levantar e analisar dados sobre uso da terra no bioma Cerrado; em junho, será celebrado um acordo entre as partes envolvidas. Os parceiros enfatizaram que, nessa região, finalmente foi atingido o objetivo de fazer com que todos os atores da
cadeia de suprimentos trabalhassem juntos. Renata from Cargill stressed that they were close to a breakthrough: “We have reached a point in the discussion around compensation that we have almost found a solution for preserving areas that could be legally converted. We are working on having the necessary solutions to end conversion in the Cerrado.”
European Soy Monitor Heleen van den Hombergh returned to the stage and with colleagues from the sustainable trade initiative IDH presented the hugely comprehensive European Soy Monitor report, which examines in depth the impact of Europe’s collective soy consumption. Recognising that work to counter the externalities of soy production is only possible through the development of sustainable supple chains, the presenters outlined that their report on soy in 2017 showed that only 22% (7.6 million tons) of the total soy use in Europe was compliant with the FEFAC Soy Sourcing Guidelines (a baseline for responsible soy), and only 13% of European soy imports (4.2 million tons) was verified deforestation-free. They stressed that certifications like RTRS, ProTerra, Donau Soja and Europe Soya, ISCC+, and CRS make it easier for companies to demand sustainable soy, but the production of sustainable soy still currently exceeds demand. https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/ publication/european-soy-monitor/
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