The king of soya, Erai Maggie, wants to become a senator in Brazil, according to today's Guardian.
He wants to turn more of the Cerrado savannah in his home state of Mato Grosso into land fit for soya farming. In doing so, he will be easing the plight of the world's hungry. He and others are producing the cheapest and healthiest protein there is, he claims. And not a single rainforest tree is being felled in the process.
Soya farmers, some Brazilian scientists and quite possibly many Brazilian politicians, regard their savannah as there to be exploited. It is only just fit for cattle and for crops, needs the addition of lime and phosphorus to make it sufficiently fertile.
But it is also a unique site for wildlife boasting thousands of plants, insects, birds and mammals. It is a huge carbon store, a smaller store than it was before though, because a large swathe has already been destroyed.
It is not just soya farming that is threatening the Cerrado. Other parts are being transformed into sugar cane plantations, for use in biofuel production.
Mr Maggie claims soya cultivation will ease food shortages but it is the drive for biofuels, not any form of philanthropy, that is swelling his bank account. The US government is encouraging its farmers to switch from soya to corn, for ethanol production to make petrol cleaner. Less US soya means more more must be grown elsewhere. And it is the Brazilian Cerrado that is paying the price.
The Guardian's report is here
And details of the RSPB's international campaign on biofuels is here