More Amazon should be cut down for food says Brazilian leader

Reuters reports that the governor of Brazil's largest soy producing region wants to help stem the so-called global food crisis by clear-cutting more of the Amazon rain forest for farm land.

Blairo Maggi of Mato Grosso state (in western Brazil) said in a local paper that as the global food crisis grows it will be "inevitable to discuss" either growing food or protecting the environment. He goes on to say that as a solution his country has the "space to raise [agricultural] production."

Mato Grosso has the distinction of being the most deforested state in 2007 but its northern half is still covered with Amazon rain forest.

Images above from NASA compare deforestation in Mato Grosso from June 17, 2002 center and June 28, 2006 top

Read the full story: Brazil "soy king" sees Amazon as food solution