"How Illegal Land Grabs in Brazil’s Amazon Feed the Global Beef Industry", 08 July 2022

...Between 2018 and 2021, more than 90,000 cattle that were raised on illegally grabbed land in Pará state made their way into Brazil’s beef supply chain, a new investigation has found.

Most were transferred to legal farms that supplied over 100 slaughterhouses around the country, including facilities owned by two of the world’s largest meat companies, JBS and Marfrig.

A subsidiary of Europe’s biggest meat processor, Danish Crown, also bought beef that appears to have originated on a ranch in protected rainforest.

Despite attempts to regulate Brazil’s meat industry, experts estimate that 90 percent of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is driven by cattle ranching...

For instance, the world’s largest meat company, JBS — which supplies well-known chains like McDonalds and Carrefour — bought more than 21,000 cattle from facilities that sourced from illegal farms. A subsidiary of Europe’s biggest meat processor, Danish Crown, also bought beef that appears to have originated on a ranch in protected Pará rainforest...

...Experts say companies like JBS and Marfrig don’t do enough to check whether the farms they buy from have “laundered” cattle raised on illegal ranches...

Marfrig said it does what it can to monitor its supply chain, and its slaughterhouse in Pará has now closed...

JBS said it could not find records of the 21,000 animals connected to illicit farms that reporters had discovered, but pledged to “contact all of its direct suppliers mentioned [in this investigation], asking them to verify their supply chains.”

Danish Crown said its subsidiary has stopped working with the supplier that bought the illicit cattle...

By tracing a batch of 117 bulls over three years old — the age they are usually killed for beef — reporters were able to show how cattle from the illegally acquired farmland made their way into the supply chain of Europe’s largest meat processor...

Danish Crown told piauí that it had stopped working with Redentor Foods two years ago...

Giovan Santos, sustainability manager at Grupo Bihl, which owned Redentor Foods at the time but apparently sold it in 2020, said the company has strict control over its livestock suppliers...

A recent annual audit by the Federal Public Ministry, known as a “Meat TAC” report, shows JBS is still not living up to its sustainability pledges.

...“JBS is committed to a sustainable beef chain in all biomes in which it operates,” the company said in a statement...