"Revealed: US diners more exposed than ever to Amazon deforestation", 28 August 2025

...High-risk Brazilian beef is reaching US dinner plates at unprecedented levels...

In the first five months of 2025 alone, total Brazilian beef exports to the US reached over 175,000 tonnes, more than double compared to the same period in 2024...

With at least 95 per cent of deforestation driven by commercial agriculture in Brazil likely to be illegal, Earthsight had already highlighted the growing links between the US beef market and deforestation risks in Brazil in 2021 and 2022. But this lucrative trade has, more than ever, become dangerously exposed to the risk of imported deforestation from Brazil...

As more facilities in the Amazon receive sanitary approval to export to the US, the burden on American importers to ensure their supply chains are not tainted by deforestation or illegality increases...

Five of the 13 Amazon-based slaughterhouses currently approved to export to the US are in Rondônia: two are owned by JBS, two by Minerva and one by Distriboi...

...Illegally raised cattle are often ‘laundered’ through legal farms outside the reserve. This practice frequently involves falsified transport permits and avoidance of Brazilian sanitary controls, creating serious health and safety risks...

In December 2023, Rondônia's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against JBS for purchasing 227 cattle raised illegally in the Jaci-Paraná Extractive Reserve...

In another lawsuit, Distriboi along with a local meatpacker and three cattle ranchers were ordered to pay $764,000 in compensation for environmental damage. Distriboi, exporting under the name El Toro, has shipped almost 800 tonnes of beef to the United States since January 2025.

In April 2025, the state’s Legislative Assembly quietly passed, in a five-minute session with little debate, a controversial law that effectively absolves those responsible for illegal deforestation. 

The legislation retroactively legalised pasture carved out of protected rainforest, dissolving the Jaci-Paraná conservation area in the process...

When contacted by Earthsight, JBS pointed to investments in individual cattle traceability in Pará, but not in Rondônia or Mato Grosso, where its USDA-approved facilities are located. The company has a commitment to buy cattle only from direct suppliers registered on their platform from 2026, but offered no timeline for traceability back to indirect suppliers. JBS stated it is awaiting a court ruling on the lawsuit brought by Rondônia’s Attorney General. Marfrig said it is aiming for full traceability of all suppliers by December 2025 and stated that the suppliers named by Repórter Brasil comply with their socio-environmental criteria. Both JBS and Marfrig disputed Imazon’s report. Minerva told Earthsight it plans to implement a monitoring programme for indirect suppliers, but only by 2030. Distriboi did not respond to Earthsight’s request for comments and has made no public commitments...