JBS broke its own rules while buying cattle from deforested areas in Pantanal
{Earth and Leaf Editorial – JBS broke its own rules while buying cattle from deforested areas in Pantanal – JBS is the worlds largest meat company and as such is out there with the fossil fuel companies. We need to remove JBS from the food supply chain unless they are willing to change. Given that it is prepared to break its own rules that is unlikely to happen.}
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JBS broke its own rules while buying cattle from deforested areas in Pantanal
The world’s biggest meat company bought cattle more than 100 times from a farm that was sanctioned and fined nearly $2.5 million for illegally destroying unique and vulnerable wetlands in Brazil, Unearthed can reveal.
Brazilian beef giant JBS, which supplies KFC, McDonald’s, Walmart and Tesco, has been repeatedly linked to large-scale Amazon destruction. JBS’s cattle purchases appear to be in direct contravention of its promises to keep its supply chain clean.
The findings come as part of a wider investigation into the growing impact of Brazil’s beef industry on Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands, a biodiversity hotspot that is increasingly threatened by wildfires and agribusiness. Our investigation, based on an analysis commissioned from satellite imagery experts AidEnvironment, found direct and indirect suppliers to Brazil’s top three meatpackers had denuded an area at least seven times the size of Manhattan in the Pantanal in the past five years.
The vast majority of this, 93%, was linked to JBS. Unearthed, Greenpeace U.K.’s investigation unit, then investigated the top 10 deforesters in the analysis and found direct JBS suppliers involved with illegal deforestation and an Indigenous land conflict.
JBS has recently been promoting its deforestation controls and green credentials ahead of an attempt to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange. It says it’s clamping down on deforestation in its supply chain, but is significantly expanding production in the Pantanal, with plans to create Latin America’s largest abattoir. The UNESCO World Heritage-listed wetland has just had one of its worst ever wildfire seasons.
“It is appalling to find out that JBS continues to be a major cause of egregious deforestation, while it deceives customers with claims that it is reducing deforestation in its supply chain,” U.S. Senator Cory Booker said in response to our investigation. “JBS needs to be held responsible for both its reckless destruction of the ecosystem and its deceptive greenwashing.”
Buying cattle from deforested areas in Pantanal must be stopped.