"Protesters Target Cargill at One of the Company’s Major Amazonian Ports", 31 January 2026

...As new threats emerge against the Amazon, Indigenous and environmental groups are taking aim at Cargill, the Minnesota-based grain-trading giant they see as the greatest foe of the planet’s most climate-critical rainforest...

Cargill ships more soybeans from Brazil, now the world’s largest producer, than any other company. As protections for the rainforest deteriorate—at the behest of agribusiness powers, critics say—the company is the trader with the most to gain...

The current protests are aimed at recent actions from the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: a decree that would privatize management of the Tapajós...and a notice that opens bidding to private companies for dredging the Tapajós...

Environmental and Indigenous groups have tried to stop the decree in court, but a judge denied the request in mid-January. The groups say the decree violates Brazilian law, which requires prior consultation with Indigenous groups on projects that impact tribal lands, and insist they will continue their protest at the terminal until a judge revokes the decree. 

The protest comes amid a broader push by the agribusiness industry to expand infrastructure across the region while also weakening both voluntary and regulatory environmental protections.

In 2006, responding to pressure from environmental groups, soy producers and traders agreed to a voluntary pact known as the Soy Moratorium, in which they pledged to avoid buying soybeans from any land that had been deforested after 2008...

But in recent years, citing the industry’s huge economic importance to Brazil, agribusiness groups have attempted to weaken the agreement...

The companies did not respond to questions from Inside Climate News, including whether they are individually withdrawing from the agreement or if they support the decision...