Mr. MacLennan, the chief executive of Cargill, described a business trip to Brazil last year, during which he saw the Amazon from a plane window. It earned Mr. MacLennan a photo opportunity with Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general at the time. “They’re breaking their own pledge.”Cargill is committed, Mr. MacLennan said, to eliminating by 2020 deforestation from its production of palm oil, a commodity widely used in food, detergents and cosmetics. But, he said, Cargill had always understood the declaration to give all signatories until 2030 to tackle deforestation. “I don’t think I or others appreciated the vast complexity of the task,” Mr. MacLennan said.

Source: New York Times February 24, 2017 17:37 UTC