Many multinationals in recent years have pledged to keep their products deforestation-free, aiming in part to attract consumers concerned about the felling of tropical forests. But a new report finds that some large U.S.-based food companies have failed to adopt strong woodland-protection policies, thereby contributing to global warming and to biodiversity loss in South American ecosystems including the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco. The report, issued in September by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), examines the forest-protection policies of 13 U.S.-based multinationals in the fast-food, retail and food manufacturing sectors that source or sell South American beef. It finds nine lack any public plan or policy to produce deforestation-free beef and that four others—Nestlé, Mars, McDonalds... [Log in to read more]