Environmentalists targeted a Falmouth supermarket over the weekend by flyposting campaign posters onto the side of the store.

Volunteers from Greenpeace Falmouth and Penryn took action at Tesco Metro calling for it to "stop buying meat and dairy from companies involved in destroying the Amazon" and to halve the amount of meat it sells by 2025, saying this would protect people, wildlife and the climate.

Large posters of the Amazon in flames appeared on the shop front of the store in Killigrew Street with the message: “Tesco, stop selling meat linked to forest destruction."

The posters encouraged the public to sign a petition calling on the new Tesco CEO Ken Murphy to take action.

One volunteer from Goldenbank, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Greenpeace Falmouth and Penryn volunteers have put these posters over the windows of the Killigrew Street Tesco to expose the link between industrial meat and rainforest destruction.

"The Amazon is more than 5,000 miles away, but the products of rainforest destruction are in our local supermarket and on unsuspecting people’s dinner plates.

"Tesco should be setting a good example to consumers and not supporting companies like JBS who are destroying massively important ecosystems in the Amazon.’’

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Greenpeace said that Tesco had "promised to end its part in deforestation for commodities such as soya by 2020," but in 2018 it had "quietly changed that goal to 2025".

It went on to claim: "Much of the chicken and pork on its shelves is fed on Brazilian soya, and produced by companies owned by JBS, including the meat processing company Tulip, which has a large factory based in Bodmin.

"As the world’s largest meat-packing company, JBS has been repeatedly linked to deforestation in the Amazon."

The action group said industrial scale meat production, which included clearing land for beef production and to grow crops like soya for animal feed, was the biggest driver of deforestation globally but a recent YouGov poll conducted for Greenpeace revealed that only 15 per cent of Britons were aware of this.

The poll also found that more than half of those surveyed would consider rejecting meat products linked to deforestation and that one in four thought supermarkets should sell less meat.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We share Greenpeace’s aim to end deforestation in the Amazon.

"It’s why we’ve set challenging public targets committing to zero deforestation, it’s why we’ve committed to a 300 per cent increase in the sales of plant-based meat alternatives, why we don’t sell Brazilian beef and why we support action to ensure all food sold in the UK is deforestation-free.”