Environmental activists in Brazil want US farming giant Cargill to keep its promise to act against deforestation—and they have used destroyed rainforest to send a message almost 100 feet tall. A mural on the side of an 11-story building in Sao Paolo was made from ash and charcoal from rainforests burned in recent wildfires, along with mud from recent floods in southern Brazil and clay from river basins dried up by drought, the New York Times reports. It depicts Indigenous leader Alessandra Korap in a fire-ravaged forest, holding a sign that says "Stop the Destruction" and "#KeepYourPromise."
"From floods to droughts, everything is connected," lead artist Mundano, who worked with five assistants, said Tuesday, the day before the mural was unveiled. "We are tired of being a country, a continent where we and the natural resources we have here are exploited," he told the AP. "We have to regenerate our planet instead of destroying it." In 2023, Cargill, one of the largest exporters of Brazilian soy, pledged "to eliminate deforestation and land conversion from its direct and indirect supply chain" in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay by 2025, the Times reports.
Stand Earth, a conservation nonprofit that funded the mural, said in April that 18 companies with "confirmed or suspected links" to Cargill were involved in deforestation or land conversion for soy production, though the Minnesota-based firm said it is "on track to deliver" its commitment. Mundano temporarily painted the names of Cargill family members on the mural. "This is perhaps the largest mural ever made with natural pigments," he told Reuters. "The names we are writing here are of billionaires who still live in a model based on the destruction of ecosystem biomes and contribute to the climate emergency." (More Brazil stories.)
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