"Environmental watchdog Mighty Earth reveals two-year effort to postpone and weaken EU Deforestation Regulation"
"US corporate lobbyists launched a two-year “blitz” to postpone and weaken the world’s most progressive legislation to protect forests, according to a new investigation by the environmental watchdog Mighty Earth.
Major US firms and trade associations, including Cargill, Bunge, Mondelēz and the US Soybean Export Council, as well as numerous other US firms and organizations, sought to influence the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in more than 350 meetings, the advocacy group found.
US company representatives and industry groups deny there was a concerted campaign to derail the deforestation rules, saying their meetings with EU officials raised legitimate concerns around implementation.
The EUDR prohibits imports of commodities such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood from deforested land. When the ban was put forward in 2003, the then European environment commissioner, Virginijus Sinkevičius, described it as “the most ambitious legislative attempt to tackle these issues worldwide ever” and some US lawmakers said it should be a model for similar rules in the United States."
Jonathan Watts reports for the Guardian October 17, 2026.
