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The forest where the Indians live is now being destroyed by Brazilian cattle raisers at a faster rate than the Amazon. The area is being illegally bulldozed to open up the land for cattle ranching.
"It's likely that the presence of bulldozers on their land is forcing the Indians into other areas, east of the zone being deforested," said Jorge Vera of the NGO GAT (Gente, Ambiente y Territorio), an acronym in Spanish for People, Ambiente and Territory, a local support organization for the Indians.
The Totobiegosode have lost a staggering 6,000 hectares of their land this year alone to companies wanting to graze cattle for beef. Since May the amount of their land destroyed has almost tripled. The companies destroying the Totobiegosode's land are both Brazilian: Yaguarete Porá SA and River Plate SA.
Besides the terrifying impact of the destruction of their home by bulldozers, any contact between company workers and the Totobiegosode could easily result in deaths on either side. Many Ayoreo have died in previous encounters.
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Esoi, a Totobiegosode man who was contacted in 2004 and has relatives among the uncontacted Indians, said today, "I'm appealing to the authorities to stop the destruction of our forest. My family is there now. That's where our houses are. We're losing our forest."
A team from Paraguay's government recently attempted to inspect the area where Yaguarete Porá is working, but company personnel barred them from entering. This met with widespread outrage and condemnation in Paraguay.
Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, an organization dedicate to defend the human rights of tribal peoples, said, "The Totobiegosode are losing their land at a faster rate than the entire Amazon. If this continues, they may well be wiped out. Paraguay's new President Lugo must act fast to ensure that the illegal destruction of the Totobiegosode's forest by these Brazilian companies stop immediately."
Here in the US, OCM - the Organization for Competitive Markets, a conservative organization is fighting for fairness in agricultural markets (OCM believes we must work together, across all commodities, toward the common purpose of returning our food and agriculture sector to true supply-demand based competition), has joined up with another conservative group R-Calf (The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund represents the U.S. cattle industry in trade and marketing issues to ensure the continued profitability and viability of independent U.S. cattle producers) to fight the JBS Swift merger with National Beef.
They have gotten the justice department to join them in attempting to stop the merger.
click here
Let me stress to liberals who are reading this, that you are looking at two conservative organizations which are fighting for you and for justice in ways you have not noticed. And they are doing so on skimpy staffs and few resources and could use a great deal of attention to this issue as well as all the support you might be able to bring.
If you would like to donate to OCM, you can send help to
Organization For Competitive Markets
P.O. Box 6486
Lincoln
NE
68506
OCM, you should know, is also taking on Monsanto around its monopoly over seeds. Know any other organization actually attempting a frontal assault like that?
But when they went on the radio in the midwest to talk about their project. the host of the show, Derry Brownfield, who had been broadcasting on the Brownfield-Lear network for years (it has been his joint network originally) was fired the next day by Clyde Lear, his friend.
And the JBS Swift merger itself?
"That's $1 billion right there," Monfort pointed out. Asked how his late father, Kenny Monfort, might view the announcement, he said, "I'm sure he'd rather be the seller than the buyer."
