Will DNA Testing for Immigrant Arrestees be Ruled out in Obama's Administration

Will the DNA testing of immigrant arrestees be abolished by the Obama administration? After all, it will only be in effect for 11 days before he assumes the presidency. If he allows this he will be opening the door to an even further loss of immigrants rights.

New Rule Expands DNA Collection to All People Arrested
Civil Rights Groups Assail Change
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 12, 2008; Page A02

Immigration and civil liberties groups condemned a new U.S. government policy to collect DNA samples from all noncitizens detained by authorities and all people arrested for federal crimes.

The new Justice Department rule, published Wednesday and effective Jan. 9, dramatically expands a federal law enforcement database of genetic identifiers, which is now limited to storing information about convicted criminals and arrestees from 13 states...more

Can a U.S. President Save the World?

It wouldn't have seemed possible until we saw George W. Bush almost destroy the world. If one American president can cause so much chaos, then another can bring just as much resolution to the world's problems.

It is not so much that Obama is so special (although he is quite remarkable)... it is what he represents... it is what we as the American populace has become. The presidency is a mirror of the nation. If we elected Barack Obama it is because we are ready for his type of leadership.

As many have said. Thank you George W. Bush for your terrible presidency. Without the mess you created, we might not have been as open to someone like Obama.

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Wanted: A New U.S. Grand Strategy

by Fareed Zakaria
Washington Post
December 13, 2008

Barack Obama's campaign for president began with his opposition to the war in Iraq. But before last week's terror attacks in India, the subject of foreign policy had disappeared, almost completely overshadowed by the economic crisis.

This doesn't mean that international issues will be ignored. No doubt the national security team Obama is announcing this week will be quick to tackle the many issues in their inbox, and will likely do so with intelligence and competence. There are enough problems to occupy them fully -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, al-Qaeda, Iran, Russia -- and they will face unexpected crises like the Mumbai assaults.

But we must hope that as president, Obama does more than select a good team, delegate well and react intelligently to the problems that he will confront. He must have his administration build a broader framework through which to view the world and America's relations with it -- a grand strategy.

At this moment, the United States has a unique opportunity to push forward a vision that aligns its interests and ideals with those of most of the world's major powers. But it is a fleeting opportunity. Grand strategy sounds like an abstract concept--something academics discuss -- and one that bears little relationship to urgent, jarring events on the ground. But in the absence of strategy, any administration will be driven by the news, reacting rather than leading. For a superpower that has global interests and is forced to respond to virtually every problem, it's all too easy for the urgent to drive out the important...


President-elect Obama has powers of his own... I will not exaggerate the importance of a single personality, but Obama has become a global symbol like none I can recall in my lifetime. Were he to go to Tehran, for example, he would probably draw a crowd of millions, far larger than any mullah could dream of. Were his administration to demonstrate in its day-to-day conduct a genuine understanding of other countries' perspectives and empathy for the aspirations of people around the world, it could change America's reputation in lasting ways.

This is a rare moment in history. A more responsive America, better attuned to the rest of the world, could help create a new set of ideas and institutions -- an architecture of peace for the 21st century that would bring stability, prosperity and dignity to the lives of billions of people. Ten years from now, the world will have moved on; the rising powers will have become unwilling to accept an agenda conceived in Washington or London or Brussels. But at this time and for this man, there is a unique opportunity to use American power to reshape the world. This is his moment. He should seize it.

Posted by Fareed Zakaria on December 1, 2008 12:14 PM

link to complete article

Bush Administration says Obamas can't move into Blair House early

It seems very strange that the Bush administration will not let the Obamas move into Blair House before January 15th. Obama asked for the accommodations so that his daughters could start school right after the holidays, thus making their transition less stressful. Blair House is logical, especially because of the heightened security it can offer. Plus, having Obama across the street from the White House would probably make the country feel a little more secure. Maybe Bush thinks Obama will be too close for comfort. No matter what the reason, has anyone ever heard of a president-elect being denied a request of this nature?

It would be interesting to see what is really on the Blair House schedule that is more important than a request from our incoming president.

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The Blair House web site states:

Blair House has stood in front of the White House for more than 180 years, witness to events of extraordinary importance for the nation and her people. For decades the rooms of this stately home have played an even more active role, serving United States foreign policy as a gracious residence, meeting place, and sanctuary for visiting heads of state.

Obama aides: White House says Obamas can't move into Blair House early, other events scheduled

By PHLIIP ELLIOTT | Associated Press Writer
Chicago Tribune
3:29 PM CST, December 12, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama asked the White House if his family could move to Washington earlier than normal, but aides say the White House couldn't give them the official guest house as early as his family wanted.

The Obamas had asked White House officials to move into Blair House about two weeks before the traditional date so their two daughters could start their new school when classes resume Jan. 5. Obama aides say the White House told them that the request cannot be met because the current administration still has plans for the historic government home across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

An Obama aide said the family was told that there were previously scheduled events at the Blair House and guests could not be displaced. The aide, who was not authorized to speak about Obama family matters, spoke on the condition of anonymity...more

London Police Lie about Brazilian's Death

Why was it so easy to kill Jean Charles de Menezes in London? Why did London police so easily think he was a terrorist? Was is because he was not white? The department's lies make the death of Menezes even more horrific.


link to editorial on Menezes' death from the London Guardian

Menezes: Did the police lie?

By Mark Hughes, Crime correspondent
London Independent
Saturday, 13 December 2008

Jean Charles de Menezes was not lawfully killed as part of an anti-terrorist operation, a jury decided yesterday, rejecting the police account of how the Brazilian died as not to be trusted.

Returning an open verdict at the end of the 12-week inquest, the jurors contradicted evidence given by seven firearms and surveillance officers when they answered a series of 13 questions put to them by the coroner.

In particular, they said they refused to believe that the first officer to open fire, codenamed C12, had shouted a warning of "armed police" first. They also rejected the officer's claim that the Brazilian had walked towards him.

Mr de Menezes died on 22 July 2005 aged 27, after police mistook him for a terrorist and shot him seven times in the head. The coroner, Sir Michael Wright, had already stopped the jury from returning a verdict of unlawful killing, leaving open and lawful killing verdicts as the only possibilities...more

Why didn't the National Democratic Party Support Rick Noriega?

photo: Rick Noriega
Cornyn was vulnerable this year. With help from the DNC Noriega would have had a good chance. But $20,000 was like pennies...They must have thought that Texas was a lost cause.

There is another chance in 2010. If the DNC wants Texas back, they need to wake up and support their candidate.

Texas Hispanic Dems Blast National Party for Non-Support

Houston Chronicle

December 11, 2008

Two prominent Hispanic Democratic officials from Texas harshly criticized an arm of their national party today for skipping over the state when it provided funding muscle for U.S. Senate candidates across the country.

State Sens. Mario Gallegos of Houston and Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio objected to the fact that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee collected contributions from Texans — $1.1 million at an event in San Antonio, for instance — without sending any to the campaign of outgoing state legislator Rick Noriega of Houston.

Noriega lost the Senate race in November to Republican incumbent John Cornyn, who raised $10 million during the campaign to $4 million for Noriega, according to federal records.

The Democratic committee's decision to spend the money outside Texas "is shameful and disgraceful, and we will do everything we can to prevent this disrespect from happening again," the two state senators wrote.

"For the face of the U.S. Senate to represent the true face of America, we must all work together to invest in quality candidates such as Rick Noriega, not take a walk when our candidate is not a member of the millionaires' club," they added...more

Undocumented Workers at Chertoff's Home

Even Chertoff can't get away from E-Verify.

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Cleaning Firm Used Illegal Workers at Chertoff Home

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 11, 2008; Page A01
Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official.

The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants.

Now, owner James D. Reid finds himself in a predicament that he considers especially confounding. In October, he was fined $22,880 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and fill out required I-9 verification forms for employees, five of whom he said were part of crews sent to Chertoff's home and whom ICE told him to fire because they were undocumented...more

What do you do if your father was a monster?

A new PBS documentary deals with this theme on Sunday night, December 10.

Many of us like to think our parents were perfect.  It is hard to see they have faults, sometimes abominable ones.  

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"Your father was a monster"

In the PBS documentary "Inheritance," the daughter of Nazi murderer Amon Goeth struggles to accept an unbearable legacy.

By Heather Havrilesky



Dec. 10, 2008 | Monika Hertwig knew very little about her father until she went to see Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List." According to Hertwig, no one in Germany talked about the Second World War. Her grandmother had told her, when she was 11, that her father was hanged for killing Jews as the head of the Plaszow concentration camp in Krakow, Poland. But she didn't fully grasp her father's unconscionable acts until 1993, when Spielberg's film came out. The moment Ralph Fiennes' character was introduced, Hertwig recognized him. Then she sat in the dark for hours, feeling, in her words, "sick with the truth."

In the POV documentary "Inheritance" (premieres 9 p.m. Dec. 10 on PBS), filmmaker James Moll unveils the story of how Hertwig, now in her 60s, discovered the unthinkable horrors of her father's legacy. She never knew her father, who died when she was 1 year old, and she'd never gotten along with her mother, who once told her in anger that she was just like her father and would die like him, too. But when Hertwig saw a German documentary about the Holocaust featuring a woman named Helen Jonas who'd been a servant in Amon Goeth's house, Hertwig became intent on meeting Jonas to learn more about her father and to understand why her mother had stayed by his side, as his mistress, during those years...more

Jack & the Box and Diabetes

Food that will push you towards becoming diabetic:

1.  Jack in the Box hamburgers

2.  McDonalds

3.  Burger King

4.  carbonated softdrinks

5.  most store-bought cookies

6.  many bottled fruit juices

Diabetes is killing us.  As I write this my 48 year old brother has gone through his 4th dialysis treatment in five days.  As kids, we never thought twice about going to get food from Jack and the Box.

My students were aghast a few weeks ago when I told them a colleague of mine who is a researcher at a Cambridge diabetes research center told me that this generation will have a shorter life span than the previous.  My family is getting to it early.  My brother unfortunately has a bleak future ahead of him.  My parents are in their 80s.  They didn't grow up on junk food.

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The chain's junior bacon cheeseburger is ranked as 'the most unhealthful'

value item available among the offerings of national fast-food chains, according to the Cancer Project.
By Jerry Hirsch
December 9, 2008
Recessionary eating isn't always healthful eating, especially when it comes to the $1 value menus pushed by fast-food chains to keep sales growing through the economic slump, according to one health watchdog.

Jack in the Box's Junior Bacon Cheeseburger was ranked "the most unhealthful" value item available among the offerings of national fast-food chains, according to an analysis by dietitians with the nonprofit Cancer Project in Washington that is scheduled to be released today.

The $1 burger from San Diego-based Jack in the Box topped the ranking because of its hamburger patty and "hefty helpings of cheese and mayo-onion sauce," said Krista Haynes, Cancer Project staff dietitian.

The item contains 23 grams of fat, 860 milligrams of sodium, and bacon, a processed meat that Haynes said was associated with increased colorectal cancer risk.

Jack in the Box spokesman Brian Luscomb said the burger was a "great value for guests looking for a flavorful meal, but if you are looking for something else there are plenty of other great items on our value menu to choose from," including a chicken sandwich and a salad.

McDonald's new $1 McDouble sandwich and Irvine-based Taco Bell's 89-cent Cheesy Double Beef Burrito are among the other items singled out in the Cancer Project's report on the five least healthful fast-food value menu items...more

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Virgin of Guadalupe 6

An image of Guadalupe from a book published in Mexico City in 1665

Virgin of Guadalupe 5

From the Museum at the Basilica of Guadalupe

Mexico City

Brooklyn: Latino Immigrant on Life Support After Beating

It has happened in Pennsylvania, now twice in New York State. Another immigrant has been beaten. Jose Sucuzhanay has been declared brain dead.

Every one of these beatings should weigh on the mind of Lou Dobbs and other media people who have sensationalized the immigrant "problem."


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Family Keeps Vigil for Beaten Brooklyn Man
New York Times
December 10, 2008

An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten in Brooklyn last weekend in what the police have described as a possible bias attack was declared brain-dead on Tuesday, a law enforcement official said. But the man was being kept on life support while his family decides whether to donate his organs, the official said.

There have been no arrests in the attack, which came four weeks after the fatal stabbing of an Ecuadorean immigrant on Long Island by a group of teenagers who had been looking for a Latino to attack. The attacks have jolted nerves in the city’s Latino communities and have drawn wide condemnation from city officials and Ecuadorean community leaders, many of whom joined relatives of the Brooklyn beating victim on Tuesday...more

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Outside the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico City, March 2008.  

Photo by M.T. Hernandez

Virgin of Guadalupe 3

Mexico City, 2008.  Photo by M.T. Hernandez

Immigration crackdown in Spain after economic downturn

Unemployed Immigrants Struggle as Hard-Pressed Spain Rolls Up Welcome Mat

New York Times
December 10, 2008


Spain created more jobs and drew more immigrants than any other country in Europe in the past decade, largely because of a construction boom. As the economy shrinks, employers are disgorging workers at an alarming rate — unemployment soared to more than 11 percent in the third quarter — and immigrants in low-skilled jobs have been hit hardest.

The once permissive Spanish government is rolling up the welcome mat, even encouraging immigrants to return home in exchange for lump-sum welfare payments. During its economic boom, Spain epitomized Europe’s hunger for low-cost labor. But now, it could become a laboratory for the strains that emerge when those workers are unemployed, yet stay put.

Spain has not yet suffered the outbursts of xenophobia heard in places like Italy, and Spaniards say their own years as a nation of émigrés help them sympathize...

But hospitality may wear thin. Spain’s unemployment rate is now the highest in the European Union, up from 8 percent at the end of 2007. Among immigrants, unemployment is estimated at 17 percent. About five million immigrants are registered as living in Spain, a country of 46 million, with Moroccans, Romanians and Ecuadoreans topping the list.

... Many [immigrants] said life had become a grinding trail of employment centers, soup kitchens and local charities. Some are months behind on rent or mortgage payments and have racked up debts a month...

...The authorities have cracked down on businesses that employ undocumented workers, and immigrants say plainclothes police officers prowl commuter trains, arresting those without papers. Prime Minister José Rodríguez Zapatero has said he supports the European Union’s tough Return Directive, which would allow illegal migrants to be held for as long as 18 months...

for complete article click here

Virgin of Guadalupe 2

In a taxi, Merida, Yucatan, 2005.  photo by M.T. Hernandez

Virgin of Guadalupe

Her story is magical. She appeared on a mountaintop near Mexico City in 1531. She has become the patroness of the Americas. Catholics say she is the mother of Christ. Others say she is a powerful female deity. She is the soul of the Mexican people, whether they are in Mexico, the U.S., or Europe.

December 12 is her feast day. For the rest of the week, dreamacttexas will be posting images of Guadalupe.


DREAMers often pray that she keep them safe.



link to image

a visual explanation of immigration

enlarge and start at the top left of the image



legal pdf

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

thanks to my colleague C. Munnell for this link

Remarkable Acts of Kindness in the Republic of Congo

In the middle of the war in the Congo, people are offering shelter to those running from the violence.  It is risky, those helping out could be hurt themselves.

Our American way of life does not allow of to really do things for other people. We may think we are being "good people" by giving a turkey or helping serve food at a homeless shelter. But that is really nothing... in fact sometimes it may seem like a superficial act of drama - it only makes the "giver" look good.


How about doing things that really make a difference? There are many other things you can do. Here are a few ideas.

1. If you are a teacher, take a second look at your students, is there someone there that you may be ignoring or stereotyping?

2. If you are a law enforcement officer, think about how you may be stereotyping people of color.

3. Spend an entire afternoon or morning at a retirement center. Have conversations with people.

4. Sponsor a kid to go to summer camp.

5. Volunteer at your local public school (not just to serve turkey).

6. Teach your own children not to hate or stereotype.

7. Do something nice for someone and keep it a secret.

8. Say something positive about DREAMers, or other undocumented people.

9. Remember everybody is not ALL bad or ALL good.

Families offer shelter to victims of Congo war

Amid the brutality of Africa's most deadly and intractable conflict, refugees fleeing the fighting are being sheltered by families - in defiance of warring factions. Though desperately frightened themselves, they cannot find it in their hearts to turn people away. In the midst of horror, there is comfort in these simple acts of compassion

* Tracy McVeigh in Kalengera, Eastern Congo
* The London Observer, Sunday December 7 2008

The melted handle of a red plastic cup and a snake of blackened cloth are all that remains of someone's home. Burnt-out circles in the grass and charred branches stretch across the plain of Nyabirehe and the smell of the fires is still strong.

Two days earlier, when The Observer passed this field, there were around 200 displaced families living in Swiss roll-shaped huts of grass and banana leaf. 'Everyone is gone,' says a woman plucking at bean stalks in the grass with her son and daughter. 'They're in the communities.' The rebels had burnt them out, she said, and the people were running again. But this time, it seems, they had found a safer refuge.

In remarkable acts of kindness that are being repeated over and over in the red mud villages of this tortured eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, people who themselves have almost nothing are opening their homes to the destitute and displaced in open defiance of the armies warring around them.

The people who had set up home in the open fields of Nyabirehe had fled fighting between government troops and the rebels in their village of Kiwanja, some 15 miles (24km) north, where more than 50 people had been killed.

'The rebel captain came to Nyabirehe and told everyone to leave, that it was shameful to live in camps,' said Nyanzira Vitwaiki, 14. 'He said they are places where spies and enemies hide. They opened fire because people didn't run fast enough. Five people were hurt.'

With her mother and crippled brother, she was taken in by a family of strangers in Kalengera, a sprawling village that sits midway along what is now a rebel-controlled stretch of line that leans out into a semi-circle from a point just outside Goma in the south, up to Ishasa, some 100 miles north, on the Ugandan border. Hundreds of people displaced by the violence of the past month have been taken in by people here...more

link to map

Eagle Pass, TX: Consequences of the Border Fence

Would Eagle Pass be so fortunate that the Obama administration remove the Border Fence? It would be a great "public works" project. I'm sure Obama would have lots of people who would even work for free to demolish it.

National Public Radio (NPR)

December 5, 2008 Friday

SHOW: Morning Edition 10:00 AM EST NPR

Fence Affects Border Town Culture, Relationships

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

And in this country the government is rushing to finish building 670 miles of fence along the border with Mexico before President Bush leaves office. The Department of Homeland Security says it's on track to complete the project in the coming weeks. In the final installment of our series on the U.S.-Mexico border, NPR's Jason Beaubien visits Eagle Pass, Texas. The Department of Homeland Security sued that city, earlier this year, to clear the way to build the fence.

JASON BEAUBIEN: Eagle Pass bills itself as the place where yeehaw meets ole. Mayor Chad Foster has a sign in his office declaring: Don't build walls between Amigos. He's been one of the most vocal critics of the border fence in Texas. Driving his white Chevy suburban along the bank of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, 30-foot-high stalks of bamboo like cane stalks batter the top and sides of his SUV. Rather than building a fence, the mayor says Homeland Security should clear all this overgrown vegetation so border patrol agents can see people crossing the river.

Mayor CHAD FOSTER (Eagle Pass) There could be a 500-pound elephant on fire in here, and we'd never see it.

BEAUBIEN: The federal government is spending billions of dollars to install physical barriers along the southern frontier. The two-mile section that's going in here at Eagle Pass is expected to cost $10 million. A report from the Congressional Research Service suggested installing and maintaining the border wall could cost as much as $49 billion over the next 25 years.

BEAUBIEN: Construction crews are driving 15-foot-high, thick metal posts into the ground along the side of a city park. The new border fence will separate the park and the municipal golf course from the rest of the city. The border patrol plans to put in gates, so that people will still have access to the park, from 6 a.m. to 10 at night. Several guys in a pickup, who've stopped to watch the construction, joke that they'll need their passports now, just to play golf, but Mayor Foster sees it as no joking matter. He insists the park should remain open 24 hours a day, and he says the whole feel of the waterfront is being hurt by the barrier.

Mayor FOSTER: The ambiance is going to be affected. If your friends and neighbors from Mexico are coming in, across our international bridges, a fence or a wall is not an inviting structure.

BEAUBIEN: Reaction to the fence in this small city of about 22,000 people is mixed.

Ms. CARMEN HERNANDEZ (Resident, Eagle Pass): I think it's a protection for the people of Eagle Pass.

BEAUBIEN: Carmen Hernandez says for too long, illegal immigrants and smugglers have been able to freely cross over from Mexico. She acknowledges the new fence isn't going to stop everybody.

Ms. HERNANDEZ: But it will help, especially the ones that are carrying the drugs over, you know, and I feel it's a good protection for us.

Mr. REFUGIO RAMIREZ (Resident, Eagle Pass): This fence really is not going to do anything good.

BEAUBIEN: Refungio Ramirez(ph), like Hernandez, has lived here all his life. He says Mexican migrants are just going to go around or under or over the new barrier.

Mr. RAMIREZ: I'm against illegal immigration, but what they doing. This is not going to stop them. No way. The coyotes are going to keep on doing the job. Yes, sir.

BEAUBIEN: Just behind him, a section of the new barrier slices between a kids' playground and the golf course. Ramirez says all this project has done is make it harder to get to the putting greens. And he continues to prod Hernandez that the government is throwing money away on the fence.

Mr. RAMIREZ: I think to me it's a waste of money.

Ms. HERNANDEZ: There are a lot of things that is a waste of money. A lot of things. Not only the fence.

Mr. RAMIREZ: Not only the fence.

BEAUBIEN: Just across the river from Eagle Pass is the Mexican city of Piedras Negras. Piedras Negras has a population of about 150,000. It's a relatively quaint industrial city as far as border towns go. There's a cobblestone square with a Spanish colonial cathedral just after your cross the bridge. Once a week, there's a flea market in Eagle Pass, and people from Piedras cross the bridge on foot to poke through the merchandise.

Mr. GUILLERMO BIRCHELMANN (Resident, Piedras Negras): We've lived together and intermarried between the two communities.

BEAUBIEN: Guillermo Birchelmann(ph) has lived most of his life in Piedras Negras. He now works for the economic development department of the Mexican state of Coahuila. Birchelmann says people on his side of the border are a bit offended by the fence and don't think it's necessary.

Mr. BIRCHELMANN: First of all, there's a river, but we just don't think that's nice between neighbors, especially neighbors that have seen each other as family all their lives.

BEAUBIEN: Birchelmann says the relationship between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras is also being strained by waits at the U.S. customs posts of up to an hour and a half. It may be harder for people to cross between Piedras and Eagle Pass, but the volume of goods crossing in trucks and trains continues to grow, and in the coming years, it's expected to increase even more.

(Soundbite of train blowing horn)

BEAUBIEN: Grupo Modelo is building what they claim will be the largest brewery in the world in Piedras. Once it's up and running in 2010, the plant will be able to ship 200 rail cars of Corona every day into the United States. From Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, the border meanders south into the lush Rio Grande Valley. Much of this international boundary between the world's economic superpower, and its far poorer neighbor, is laden with tension, - tension fueled by an unequal, unavoidable and unsettled relationship. The border cuts through industrial cities, desert, farmland. Two thousand miles from the concertina wire of Tijuana, the border finally slips unmarked into the Gulf of Mexico at a quiet sandy beach. And this line that carries so much significance farther west is lost in the waves. Jason Beaubien. NPR News.

MONTAGNE: See what this big fence looks like and learn about key towns on the changing border from our interactive map at npr.org.

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I - Eating Meat Costs the World Too Much

Did you know the gas emitted by cows is one of the greatest culprits for causing global warming?

Now is also the destruction of lands used to grow the feed for the cows.

The hidden cost of our growing taste for meat

As the west's appetite for meat increases, so too does the demand for soya - used as animal feed by farmers. But the planting of huge tracts of land is causing deforestation and destroying eco-systems in developing countries. 

London Guardian

December 7, 2008

by Juliette Jowit and Oliver Balch in Minga Pora, Paraguay, report

To the European eye, accustomed to square hedgerows and neatly tilled arable land, the countryside of eastern Paraguay is unexceptional, almost pretty. The rolling hills spread out to the far distance. The sky is vast, the horizon broken only by the occasional homestead, leafy copse or bulky metal silo.

But to 47-year-old Melitón Ramírez, this is no paradise. It's a wasteland. Juddering down a farm track in a muddy Jeep, he points to a wide field by the road. It has been sown with soya and the green-leafed plants are sprouting. It looks like a huge bed of wild clover.

'Thirty years ago, almost all of this was woodland,' says Ramírez, who's been a farmer in Alto Paraná state all his life. He grew up surrounded by the Interior Atlantic Forest, listening to the sound of bare-throated bellbirds and saffron toucanets. Before the advent of commercial farming, 85 per cent of eastern Paraguay was forest. Now, with roughly 12 per cent of it still standing, silence fills the air.

'There used to be 2,000 families living here. Now there are only 30, if that,' he continues.

The story of Ramírez's home village of Minga Porá is familiar in South America. It is a story that starts on the dinner tables of the UK and other rich nations, where a hunger for meat and dairy products fuels an ever-rising demand for the industrial farming of animals using high-protein feed. At the bottom of this food chain is the soya plant. Millions of hectares of intensively cultivated soya are gnawing at tropical forests and savannah - displacing farmers and communities, leading to poverty, ill-health and even violence, ruining habitats and exacerbating global warming.

A report by campaign group Friends of the Earth is to be published on Tuesday to focus the attention of UK consumers and the government on the scale of this destruction. It will detail for the first time the cutting, burning and spraying that occurs as a consequence. The report, What's Feeding our Food?, will start a campaign urging the government to take action, ending subsidies and other policies that encourage intensive farming and making sure public money spent on food is not propping up damaging practices.

Across the main soya-producing countries of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, an area the size of California has been cleared for this one crop, which is exported around the world, mainly to the European Union and China. As the third biggest customer in the European Union, the UK required nearly 1.2m hectares - an area the size of Devon and Cornwall - to generate the 1.7m tonnes of soya beans and 652,000 tonnes of crushed soya meal imported in the most recent year for which figures are available, 2006-7. That was most of the soya used by UK farmers producing 850 million broiler chickens, 10 billion eggs, 10 million turkeys, 4.9 million pigs and 10 million cattle for dairy and beef. Some of this food is exported, but imports, mostly from the EU, are also reared using soya feed, says the report.

'Even though bacon, burgers, milk and cheese may be produced in the UK, most will have come from animals fed on crops grown on the other side of the world,' it says. Nor is the pace of change slackening: this year official estimates judge that soya production will increase in all three major producers. Although demand for meat is largely flat in the UK, it is growing in developing countries.

Attracted by generous offers from Brazilian-born soya growers, Ramírez's neighbours began selling their plots. Soon herbicides began to contaminate the land and water supplies. His own crops began to fail. Worried the chemicals would harm his family, six years ago Ramírez decided to leave...con't

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