Soy Reports
PROMISES, PROMISES! - Supermarkets response
In Mighty Earth’s recent soy report – Promises, Promises! – we found 27,000 hectares of deforestation which occurred on ten farms post 2020 in Brazil’s Cerrado savannah linked to major global soy traders – such as Cargill, Bunge, COFCO and LDC. It’s a shocking amount of deforestation in a critically threatened savannah and something major supermarket buyers should urgently act to stamp out. Key supermarkets have publicly committed to deforestation and conversion-free soy supplies with a cut-off date of January 2020 or earlier.
We sent our report to all members of the Retail Soy Group – who last year agreed on a Roadmap for zero-deforestation soy supplies – and urged them to investigate our claims and to drop any of their soy suppliers linked to this deforestation.
To date, Lidl and Migros have failed to respond to our research. Read the responses of the other supermarkets below:
La carne y los lácteos de los supermercados siguen vinculados a la deforestación prohibida
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA Lunes, 11 de julio de 2022
Las principales cadenas de supermercados Carrefour, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco y Sainsbury's siguen arriesgándose a vender productos cárnicos y lácteos relacionados con empresas que impulsan una enorme deforestación en Brasil, pese a que hace apenas unos meses la asociación sectorial que engloba a muchas de estas empresas, el Grupo de Minoristas de la Soja (Retail Soy Group, RSG), publicó una hoja de ruta en la que se pedía de forma inequívoca a las empresas asociadas que dejaran de realizar dichas compras vinculadas con la deforestación.
El Grupo de Minoristas de la Soja pretende apoyar el desarrollo de un mercado en el que la soja sostenible sea la norma. Este grupo representa a los supermercados Ahold Delhaize, Aldi South, Aldi North, Co-op (Reino Unido), Co-op Switzerland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Migros, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco y Waitrose & Partners, y Woolworth's Group-Australia.
En respuesta al anuncio realizado por RSG en octubre de 2021 sobre la prohibición de las compras vinculadas a la deforestación, Mighty Earth llevó a cabo un análisis intensivo del cumplimiento por parte de las empresas de los pasos y compromisos clave que figuran en su propia hoja de ruta para la deforestación cero. El objetivo del análisis era proporcionar a los supermercados la información que necesitaban para cumplir con sus propios compromisos empresariales de actuar contra el cambio climático y acabar con la destrucción de los ecosistemas autóctonos.
El nuevo informe de Mighty Earth descubrió más de 27.000 hectáreas de deforestación reciente en plantaciones de soja en un solo ecosistema crítico -el Cerrado brasileño- sujeto a la prohibición de compra en base a dicho compromiso. Lo más importante es que la deforestación se produjo después de agosto de 2020, que es la fecha límite adoptada en la hoja de ruta de los supermercados. Nueve miembros del Grupo de Minoristas de la Soja -Ahold Delhaize, Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Migros, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose y Woolworths- y otros minoristas como Carrefour adoptaron explícitamente políticas de no comprar soja, carne o productos lácteos vinculados a empresas relacionadas con la deforestación producida posteriormente a 2020.
Sin embargo, aunque los supermercados aceptaron las nuevas y alarmantes pruebas aportadas por Mighty Earth, hasta la fecha todos se han negado a cumplir sus propios compromisos alejando su negocio de las empresas de la industria cárnica vinculadas a la deforestación.
En la explicación de sus razones para negarse a actuar de forma coherente con la hoja de ruta en cuya elaboración había participado, un portavoz de Aldi Süd escribió a Mighty Earth para decir que, a pesar de las nuevas pruebas, "nuestro enfoque es comunicar a los comerciantes [de soja] la petición y las expectativas alineadas de muchos actores de la cadena de suministro y comprometernos con ellos sobre una base de confianza en lugar de excluirlos o avergonzarlos públicamente".
"Que Aldi afirme que confía en las mismas empresas que acaban de salir a la luz pública incumpliendo sus propios compromisos de la Hoja de Ruta es el colmo de la deshonestidad, la ingenuidad o ambas cosas", dijo Alex Wijeratna, director senior de Mighty Earth. "Basta de palabras huidizas. Estamos hablando de una situación que conlleva al ecocidio".
"La destrucción del ecosistema que se ha documentado en el Cerrado en relación con estos supermercados es sólo una pequeña parte de toda la destrucción de la que son responsables", dijo Wijeratna. "Sabemos que estos supermercados también tienen vínculos en la cadena de suministro con una amplia destrucción del ecosistema en Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay y las Grandes Llanuras de Estados Unidos también".
El Cerrado de Brasil es la sabana y la pradera arbolada más biodiversa del mundo y es el punto caliente mundial de la deforestación provocada por la producción de carne. La agricultura animal es el mayor impulsor de la deforestación, de la extinción de la vida silvestre y del desplazamiento de los pueblos indígenas, y causa más contaminación climática que todos los coches, camiones, barcos y aviones del mundo juntos.
"El Cerrado es el nuevo Amazonas en términos de deforestación desenfrenada vinculada a la industria cárnica. Supermercados como Tesco, Carrefour, Adli y Lidl deberían cumplir su propia hoja de ruta y abandonar inmediatamente su relación comercial con los conocidos destructores de los bosques", dijo Wijeratna.
El informe de Mighty Earth "¡Palabras, palabras!" (adjunto) descubrió que los cinco principales comerciantes de alimentos para animales, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, LDC y ALZ Grãos, seguían comprando soja a los proveedores locales brasileños y a los megaconglomerados que habían talado y deforestado desde la fecha límite de agosto de 2020 al menos 27.000 hectáreas en diez fincas en el Cerrado. Se trata de un área mayor que la ciudad de Edimburgo en Escocia, o la mitad del tamaño de Chicago.
Basado en el análisis de imágenes satelitales, otros hallazgos clave del informe de Mighty Earth incluyen:
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Cada uno de los cinco principales comerciantes de soja tiene relaciones comerciales, bien directamente con las explotaciones agrícolas involucradas en la deforestación, bien con los grupos matriz (incluidos los megaconglomerados como BrasilAgro, SLC Agrícola y Condomínio Agrícola Estrondo).
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La magnitud de la destrucción es enorme. El caso más grave de deforestación identificado se produjo dentro del Condomínio Agrícola Estrondo en Bahía; la investigación descubrió que se desbrozaron más de 15.000 hectáreas después de la fecha límite de 2020. De ellas, más de 100 hectáreas fueron probablemente ilegales, en lo que debería haber sido la Reserva Legal protegida de la finca.
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Muchos otros casos fueron también significativos. La Fazenda Serra Grande de BrasilAgro, en Piauí, desbrozó más de 1.180 hectáreas de vegetación -el equivalente a 1.652 campos de fútbol- en un solo mes. La Fazenda Parnaíba de SLC Agrícola, en Maranhão, despejó 668 hectáreas - equivalentes a 935 campos de fútbol- de vegetación en seis meses.
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Deforestación en curso también se encontró en las fincas de los proveedores que aparecen en los informes Rapid Response de seguimiento de la deforestación publicados anteriormente por Mighty Earth, incluyendo SLC Agrícola, Estreito Agropecuária, Grupo Mizote y Grupo Tomazini. Los principales comerciantes de soja, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, LDC y ALZ Grãos, siguen comprando a uno o varios de estos proveedores locales, a pesar de que Mighty Earth dio la alarma públicamente sobre la deforestación en sus explotaciones hace más de un año.
"Nos entusiasmamos cuando los supermercados por fin dieron un paso adelante y pasaron de pedir ineficazmente a la industria cárnica que detuviera la deforestación a finalmente comprometerse a hacer algo al respecto. Pero incluso ante la clara evidencia de la vasta destrucción de estos ecosistemas, parecen paralizados mientras Brasil arde. Dados los vínculos de su carne con la inmensa deforestación, los clientes deberían estar totalmente consternados por lo que estos supermercados están vendiendo", dijo Wijeratna. "Ya es hora de que los supermercados hagan algo de verdad, y no solo un lavado de imagen de su carne procedente de la deforestación".
La hoja de ruta del Grupo de Minoristas de la Soja fue muy clara sobre las medidas que deben tomar sus clientes: "Esta hoja de ruta presenta los principios y las prácticas que se necesitan urgentemente dentro del sector minorista para desempeñar su papel en la detención de la deforestación y la conversión, abordando así la crisis climática mundial y preservando los ecosistemas vitales de la Tierra, como el Amazonas, las Grandes Llanuras y el Cerrado", dijo en su comunicado de prensa de presentación de la Hoja de Ruta.
FIN DE COMUNICADO
Para más información, llamar:
- MilesGrant(PrensadeMightyEarth):[email protected],+1703-864-9599(m) - CarlosBravo(MightyEarthenEspaña):[email protected],+34626998241
Acerca de Mighty Earth
Mighty Earth (www.mightyearth.org) es una ONG internacional que trabaja para defender un planeta vivo. Nuestro equipo ha logrado cambios transformadores al persuadir a las principales industrias para que reduzcan drásticamente la deforestación y la contaminación climática a lo largo de sus cadenas de suministro mundiales de aceite de palma, caucho, cacao y piensos, al tiempo que a mejorar los medios de vida de las comunidades indígenas y locales en los trópicos y a movilizar miles de millones de dólares para energías renovables.
La viande et les produits laitiers des supermarchés toujours liés à la déforestation interdite
Analyse de la mise en œuvre du manifeste « pour un soja sans déforestation » par les supermarchés Européens
11 juillet 2022 – Un nouveau rapport de Mighty Earth qui sort aujourd’hui indique que les grandes chaînes de supermarchés comme Leclerc, Carrefour et Tesco risquent de vendre de la viande et des produits laitiers liés à des entreprises à l'origine d'une vaste déforestation au Brésil, et ce alors que ces entreprises ont signé avec le soutien du gouvernement un manifeste pour lutter contre la déforestation importée liée au soja. La déforestation est à un niveau record au Brésil et aucune entreprise ne met en place des actions à la hauteur des enjeux.
En réponse à la publication par la France en Novembre 2021 d’un nouvel outil d’évaluation des risques de déforestation liée aux importations de soja et à la signature d’un Manifeste "Pour un soja sans déforestation" signé par 9 distributeurs, 15 industriels et 1 fabricant d’alimentation animale, Mighty Earth a entrepris une analyse des pratiques des principaux importateurs de soja en France et en Europe en matière de lutte contre le changement climatique et de fin de la destruction des écosystèmes naturels.
Le nouveau rapport de Mighty Earth a révélé une déforestation récente de plus de 27 000 hectares sur des plantations de soja dans un seul écosystème critique - le Cerrado brésilien - soumis à l'interdiction d'achat mentionnée dans le manifeste. La déforestation s'est produite après janvier 2020. Pourtant selon les signataires du manifeste, il a été adopté des politiques visant à ne pas acheter de soja, de viande ou de produits laitiers liés à des entreprises impliquées dans la déforestation après 2020.
Avec d’autres ONGs, Mighty Earth a demandé aux signataires d’être conformes avec le manifeste "Pour soja sans déforestation" et d’exclure les entreprises non conformes avec les engagements. Comme cela a été fait dans le secteur de l’huile de palme et comme ils s’y sont eux même engagés, il a aussi demandé de publier l’origine du soja jusqu’au silo de stockage.
12 entreprises signataires sur 28 ont répondu au courrier. Elles évoquent la tenue d’une réunion de travail à venir à l’automne et leur implication pour travailler à la recherche de solutions avec les importateurs. Aucune d’entre elles n’a respecté ses propres engagements en se détournant des entreprises de l'industrie de la viande liées à la déforestation récentes.
Dans son explication pour justifier le refus de mettre en place ses propres engagements demandées en tant que signataire du manifeste soja, un porte-parole du groupe Leclerc a écrit à Mighty Earth pour dire que "Nous regrettons des délais de réponse aussi courts ainsi que le manque d’échange préalable pour traiter un sujet si complexe (…) Nous considérons qu’il vaut mieux instaurer une relation de confiance avec les importateurs pour les amener dans la bonne direction."
"Leclerc prétend faire confiance à des entreprises qui rompent les engagements du manifeste soja. C’est le summum de la malhonnêteté ou de la naïveté, ou des deux", a déclaré Boris Patentreger, directeur France de Mighty Earth. "En 2022, alors que la déforestation explose au Brésil, il faut agir et respecter ses propres engagements. Assez de mots ambigus et de perte de temps. Nous parlons d'écocide ici".
Le Cerrado Brésilien, qui est la savane et la prairie boisée la plus riche en biodiversité au monde, est le point chaud mondial de la déforestation due à la viande. L’élevage est le principal vecteur de déforestation, d'extinction de la faune sauvage et de déplacement des populations autochtones, et elle est à l'origine de plus d’émissions de GES que l'ensemble des voitures, camions, navires et avions du monde entier réunis.
"Le Cerrado est la nouvelle Amazonie en termes de déforestation rampante liée à l'industrie de la viande. Les supermarchés comme Leclerc, Carrefour et Tesco devraient être en conformité avec leur propre feuille de route et arrêter immédiatement de s’approvisionner auprès d’entreprises impliquées dans la destruction des forêts", a déclaré Boris Patentreger.
Le rapport de Mighty Earth intitulé "Vaines promesses !" a révélé que cinq grands négociants en aliments pour animaux - Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus et ALZ Grãos - continuaient d'acheter du soja à des fournisseurs brésiliens locaux et à des méga-conglomérats qui avaient défriché et déboisé au moins 27 000 hectares sur dix exploitations du Cerrado depuis la date butoir de janvier 2020. Il s'agit d'une superficie de trois fois Paris.
Sur la base de l'analyse de l'imagerie satellitaire, voici d'autres conclusions clés du rapport de Mighty Earth :
- Chacun des cinq principaux négociants en soja entretient des relations commerciales soit directement avec les exploitations engagées dans la déforestation, soit avec les maisons mères (notamment les méga-conglomérats tels que BrasilAgro, SLC Agrícola et Condomínio Agrícola Estrondo).
- L'ampleur de la destruction est considérable. Le cas le plus grave de déforestation identifié s'est produit au sein de Condomínio Agrícola Estrondo à Bahía ; les recherches ont révélé que plus de 15 000 hectares ont été défrichés après la date butoir de 2020.
- Une déforestation continue a également été constatée dans des exploitations appartenant à des fournisseurs figurant dans les rapports de suivi de la déforestation publiés précédemment par Mighty Earth (Rapid Response) notamment SLC Agrícola, Estreito Agropecuária, Grupo Mizote et Grupo Tomazini. Les grands négociants en soja Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Louis Dreyfus et ALZ Grãos continuent de s'approvisionner auprès d'un ou plusieurs de ces fournisseurs locaux, bien que Mighty Earth ait publiquement tiré la sonnette d'alarme sur la déforestation dans leurs exploitations il y a plus d'un an.
- L’enquête internationale révèle aussi que Bunge et Cargill sont respectivement les importateurs avec le risque de déforestation le plus important en 2021 avec respectivement 87 866 ha et 63701 ha.
Bunge particulièrement ciblé dans le rapport, est par ailleurs l’importateur principal de soja en France. Il s’avère par ailleurs, qu’il est celui ayant le plus augmenté ses capacités de stockage de silos dans les municipalités à risque de déforestation au Brésil, avec 110.000 tonnes entre 2019 et 2021. En même temps Bunge fournit de grands groupes de viande comme LDC, le géant français de la volaille qui fournit les marques distributeurs de volaille de la grande distribution en France.
"Nous étions enthousiastes lorsque les supermarchés se sont finalement engagés. Mais même face aux preuves évidentes d'une vaste déforestation de ces écosystèmes, ils semblent paralysés alors que le Brésil brûle. Étant donné les liens entre leur viande et la déforestation, les clients de ces enseignes devraient être totalement consternés", a déclaré M. Boris Patentreger. "Certaines actions émergent comme un premier cargo de soja non issu de la déforestation. Mais en 2022, alors que le Brésil brule, il faut en premier lieu couper tous les liens entre la déforestation, la viande et les produits laitiers."
À propos de Mighty Earth
Mighty Earth (www.mightyearth.org) est une organisation mondiale de défense d'une planète vivante. Notre objectif est de protéger la moitié de la Terre pour la nature et de garantir un climat propice à la vie. Nous sommes obsédés par l'impact et aspirons à être l'organisation de défense de l'environnement la plus efficace au monde. Notre équipe a réussi à transformer les choses en persuadant des industries de premier plan de réduire considérablement la déforestation et la pollution climatique tout au long de leurs chaînes d'approvisionnement mondiales en huile de palme, caoutchouc, cacao et aliments pour animaux, tout en améliorant les moyens de subsistance des communautés autochtones et locales sous les tropiques et en mobilisant des milliards de dollars pour les énergies propres.
Contact en France : Boris Patentreger, [email protected] - 0776074419
European Supermarkets fail to act on deforestation-linked soy
Major European supermarkets Tesco, Carrefour, Asda, Lidl and Sainsbury’s have been urged to drop key global soy companies after an investigation by Mighty Earth found over 27,000 hectares of deforestation on soy farms in the threatened Cerrado savannah in Brazil.
Less well known than the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s tropical Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse savannah and wooded grassland and it has become a global hotspot for soy and cattle-driven deforestation. Most of the soy-driven deforestation observed was used to produce soy animal feed. Meat is the world’s largest driver of deforestation, wildlife extinction, and displacement of Indigenous peoples.
Eleven members of the Retail Soy Group – Ahold Delhaize, Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Migros, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Woolworths – and other retailers such as Carrefour with similar corporate policies promising to ban deforestation-risk soy after a 2020 cut-off date have been urged to investigate Mighty Earth’s findings and to immediately drop key soy traders linked to this new deforestation in the Cerrado.
Based on satellite imagery analysis, Mighty Earth’s new report Promises, Promises! found five major global soy traders Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, LDC and ALZ Grãos continued to buy soy from Brazilian suppliers and conglomerates who had cleared and deforested at least 27,000 hectares on ten farms in the Cerrado since after August 2020 cut-off. This is an area larger than the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, or half the size of Chicago.
"Major supermarkets like Tesco, Carrefour, Asda and Lidl should urgently investigate and then ban any soy company with proven links to deforestation,” said Alex Wijeratna, Senior Director at Mighty Earth
Read the full report:
Tesco's meat problem
Tesco's meat problem
Britain’s largest supermarket chain, Tesco sells a lot of meat – hundreds of millions of chickens a year alone. Three weeks ago, Tesco produced a new set of requirements for its meat suppliers to try and address the massive environmental consequences of those meat sales, starting with the soy-based animal feed used to fatten chicken, pigs and cows for its own-brand meat and dairy offer.
The long overdue update has been produced following campaign efforts from Mighty Earth and Greenpeace UK – with consumers calling on the company to drop the worst forest destroyers in its supply chain.
Meat has outsized environmental consequences. Raising meat produces more climate pollution, fouls more drinking water, and requires more land for livestock and feed globally than all other food crops combined - for a fraction of the nutritional value.
But the single most acute environmental consequence is the bulldozing and burning of millions of acres of rainforest and other ecosystems to make way for industrial animal feed plantations and cattle ranches.
There has been more land in the Amazon and Cerrado Biomes of Brazil bulldozed for soy plantations than the entire land mass of Israel or Slovenia in just 11 years.
Unless companies like Tesco take strict action, it could get worse very quickly: proposed legislation in front of the Brazilian legislature, which if passed, puts at least 19.6 million hectares of public land in the Amazon at risk from large agribusiness companies trying to grab land to make more industrial feed and meat.
Within this context, the new requirements for Tesco meat suppliers sourcing from South America to have a strict no-deforestation, no-conversion and no-human rights abuse policy – based on a ‘cut-off date’, a biome-wide agreement and improved transparency in sourcing represents an improvement over the status quo.
However, unless the details are strengthened, Tesco shoppers will still be eating chicken and pork connected to the destruction of the rainforest and tropical savannah in Brazil for some time.
Supplier impunity on deforestation
Tesco’s policy, in essence, allows agribusinesses that supply animal feed to continue driving deforestation with impunity while supplying the company. In particular:
- Tesco fails to spell out how or when it will suspend meat suppliers sourcing soy animal feed from companies that drive the destruction of the Amazon and the Cerrado in Brazil, nor how they will exclude traders from their supply chain complicit in deforestation. For example, even with a recent policy commitment to zero deforestation, US agribusiness behemoth Cargill will accept or condone deforestation in its supply chain until at least 2030 – giving industrial meat interests nine years to bulldoze as much land as possible.
- The scheme allows suppliers to purchase ‘mass balance’ credits or certificates if they are unable to prove that their soy is either from deforestation-free areas or from a ‘gold standard’ certified source of supply. This discredited approach is a ‘get out of jail free’ card because it could inadvertently support deforestation by allowing Tesco suppliers like Cargill to buy soy from recently destroyed forests and savannahs, and then buy credits from land that was cleared some time ago. This type of approach has also been criticised for lacking transparency and undermining traceability.
- Finally, while the policy pays lip service to the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFI), it fails to advance the principle of ‘group level accountability’ for deforestation into practice. The AFI is currently advancing guidance that bestows responsibility on traders for land conversion that happens on any farms owned by the farmers supplying them, rather than just the farms directly in their supply chain. At present, the Tesco policy allows traders such as Cargill to sell Tesco suppliers certified no-deforestation animal feed, while continuing to buy from farmers that are razing forests in other parts of its supply chain.
A tangible way forward
We have seen whole industries change when they enforce robust policies on suppliers engaged in deforestation, pollution, or human rights abuse.
Many consumer facing companies have adopted strict policies on palm oil, for instance, that simply required suppliers not to engage in deforestation, with no excuses, no credits, and no greenwashing. Those policies were a key driver of a massive environmental success: deforestation for palm oil is down more than 90%.
Until Tesco and other companies adopt similarly strong policies and cut ties with supplier companies that are driving the destruction of Brazil’s forests – such as JBS, Cargill and Bunge, its meat is still going to be driving environmental destruction on an enormous scale.
These policies are simple, clear and affordable: to comply, all producers must do is produce meat and beef on the 1.6 billion acres of previously deforested land instead of expanding on the agricultural frontier.
That should just be the easy first step, instead of something we must fight for. But if Tesco is going to provide truly sustainable protein, it needs to go further:
- Help shift consumers to sustainable, plant-based diets. As a leading retailer in the UK, Tesco has a role to play in influencing consumer behaviour towards these diets which begin to tackle the demand-drivers of deforestation.
- Support strong forest protections in producer countries, while promoting the use of existing agricultural or degraded land for soy production. Advocacy by Tesco and other supermarkets when forest laws are under threat can help in this regard, as can cutting commercial links with suppliers that support deregulation of forest protections.
- Work with others to ensure full transparency and traceability in meat from farm to product; ensure that all soy entering the market is from ‘clean’ suppliers and move forward the principle of ‘group-level responsibility’ for deforestation - meaning that companies cannot deforest in some parts of their operation while selling ‘sustainable soy’ simultaneously to other parts of the market.
While Tesco shows positive intent through its new policy, action in these three areas would prove that the company is serious in tackling the drivers of deforestation, rather than allowing its suppliers to cut down forests on one hand, while reaping the benefits of sustainability certification and credits on the other.
Mighty Earth’s new monitoring data reveals deforestation connected to soy trader and meatpackers in Brazil more than doubled over two-year period
The largest soy traders and meatpackers in Brazil have failed on their promises to end deforestation in their supply chains and continue to do business with suppliers that are destroying rainforests and savanna.
A review of the past two years of monitoring data (March 2019-March 2021) demonstrates that deforestation detected in companies’ supply chains more than doubled in the second year of monitoring compared to the first. However, despite this escalating crisis, only one case of deforestation has ever been resolved by these companies out of the 235 recorded by our monitoring.
The updated tracker includes new data from Mighty Earth’s three latest Rapid Response reports, released in partnership with Aidenvironment. The new data builds on the original version of the tracker and policy brief released in December 2020 to encompass a full two years of monitoring (March 2019-March 2021.)
Key Findings:
- The tracker update reveals that major soy traders and meatpackers are linked to more than 314,000 hectares deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado over the past two years (March 2019 to March 2021) -- an area larger than twice the size of London. Yet, out of 235 cases of deforestation that Mighty Earth has sent to companies, only one has ever been resolved.
- The data reveals a pattern of escalating amounts of deforestation carried out by soy trader and meatpacker suppliers. On average, deforestation connected to supply chains of soy traders and meatpackers more than doubled over a two-year period of monitoring. This pattern mirrors increasing rates of deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes overall during this time periodi.
- JBS was the worst-scoring meatpacker and company overall. It has been linked to 100,000 hectares of clearance the past two years – an area larger than all of Berlin. 75 percent of this clearance occurred in protected areas, making it potentially illegal under Brazilian law.
- Bunge and Cargill are the worst performing soy traders, despite their recent sustainability reports touting their nearly deforestation-free supply chains. Bunge is linked to almost 60,000 hectares of clearance – more than a third of which took place in protected areas. Meanwhile, Cargill is linked to more than 66,000 hectares of clearance -- the largest amount out of any other soy trader.
- While no company performs well in the tracker, some are performing better than others, such as Amaggi and Louis Dreyfus out of the soy traders.
Many US supermarkets continue to buy from Bunge, Cargill, and/or JBS despite these numbers – including Costco, Walmart, and Kroger. Bunge, Cargill, and JBS are also major suppliers to European supermarkets, including Tesco, EDEKA, Carrefour and Albert Heijn (Ahold Delhaize.)
In addition to the worst-scorer JBS above, the other two meatpackers included in the tracker, Marfrig and Minerva, are also poor performers, having been connected to more than 50,000 hectares of clearance each. Most of this clearance is potentially illegal, having occurred in protected areas. Much of the deforestation included in the meatpackers’ scores is related to their indirect suppliers, which meatpackers currently cannot fully trace and therefore cannot monitor for deforestation.
Although Mighty Earth sends all instances of deforestation detected in our monitoring system to meatpackers and soy traders on a monthly basis, they very rarely take action on the suppliers responsible for the destruction. Only one case of deforestation has ever been resolved by a company, out of 235 cases to date that Mighty Earth sent to companies in the past two years.
One example of this inaction is meatpackers continuing to source from Agropecuária Santa Bárbara Xinguara (AgroSB) – a company that has direct and indirect links to JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva. Mighty Earth and Aidenvironment have caught AgroSB deforesting or setting fires on six separate occasions during the past two years. AgroSB has also been accused of exploiting workers and money laundering.ii The clearance carried out by AgroSB now totals more than 2,800 hectares, more than 2,200 of which occurred in protected areas. The clearance could have been stopped long ago, but inaction from meatpackers allows business to continue as usual.
Similarly, Cargill and Bunge continue to source from SLC Agrícola despite repeated deforestation cases connecting the supplier to more than 11,000 hectares of clearance over our two years of monitoring. Furthermore, SLC Agrícola is associated with a $200 million land grabbing corruption schemeiii. While SLC Agrícola committed to stop deforesting in 2020, it admitted it still had more clearing to do before implementing the commitment and has actively opposed a deforestation cut-off date in the Cerradoiv. It also recently bought 8 new properties through its acquisition of Terra Santa Agro, one of which overlaps with more than 18,000 hectares of Indigenous land in Mato Grossov.
AgroSB and SLC Agrícola are examples of how the agricultural groups and property owners implicated in deforestation cases are often also connected to land conflicts, labor rights violations, government bribery and environmental crimes, which are further detailed in our Rapid Response reports.
Beyond the issue of deforestation, many cases added to the tracker involve the concerning use of fire. About half of the deforestation cases from Rapid Response reports added to the latest tracker update also involved fire incidences. Often, producers use fire to clear debris from bulldozed trees after they’ve deforested. Fires set by agricultural companies can often spread out of control, resulting in the destruction of land and air quality of Indigenous and local communitiesvi. The worst performers in the tracker tended to be linked to more fire incidences. For instance, 63 percent of new cases connected to Bunge included in the updated tracker involved fire events on the property. Meanwhile, 55 percent of new cases connected to JBS involved fires.
Ultimately, no company featured in the tracker can claim a clean supply chain. All companies in the tracker lack full traceability of their direct and/or indirect supply chain and therefore are limited in their validation and investigation of our reports of deforestation. Even the best performer in the tracker, soy trader Amaggi, still only earns a total of 56 points out of 100 points and is connected to more than 5,000 hectares of clearance.
The Solution
The buyers and financiers of the soy traders and meatpackers must take significant action that includes contractual penalties if significantly more progress on their zero-deforestation commitments is not made by supplying traders and meatpackers. They should ensure that the soy traders and meatpackers in their supply chain:
1) Agree to a cut-off date for deforestation in the Cerrado with a 2020 cut-off date
2) Adopt zero deforestation and zero conversion commitments for all sourcing areas, including those outside of Brazil.
2) Adopt a suspend-then-engage approach to suppliers with widespread conversion, either legal or illegal
3) Develop a publicly available joint-monitoring system that includes transparent traceability to farm-level for all suppliers
4) Commit to the advancement of corporate and government policies that protect Indigenous land and secure workers’ rights
Want to learn more about our methodology?
Visit: https://www.mightyearth.org/methodology/
*Data reflects company responses as of April 15 2021
Want to take action?
Visit our petition page: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-cargill-bunge-jbs-to-act-to-stop-deforestation-in-latin-america
Fanning the Flames: The Corporations Destroying the Amazon and Worsening the COVID-19 Pandemic
September 2020
A new analysis by environmental campaign organization Mighty Earth, working in collaboration with MapHubs, links meat companies JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva to the fires raging in the Amazon and highlights how these fires are likely exacerbating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on local communities. The report maps the fires intentionally set in Brazil this year and overlays local company supply chain information to understand which companies are driving the destruction. Mighty Earth’s analysis also highlights how these fires are likely exacerbating the impacts of COVID-19. The three hotspot municipalities reported a combined 47,988 cases as of August 16, 2020, and an infection rate more than twice the national average by total population.
Read the full report here.
Ranking Soy Traders' Performance on Deforestation
September 2020
Mighty Earth’s new report examines the sustainability policies and performance of six of the largest soy traders (Louis Dreyfus Company, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, Amaggi, COFCO International, Cargill, and Bunge) to determine which traders have the most – and least – land impacts and land rights violations in their supply chain. The analysis is intended to illustrate to buyers, including consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, that certain traders offer less risk and less environmental and social impacts compared to their peers.
Read the full report here.
How the Sausage Gets Made
May 2020
Every year, the Danish meat giant Danish Crown produces huge amounts of pork from pigs fed with soy that has come from deforested areas in South America. This report from Rainforest Foundation Norway, Mighty Earth in the United States, and Forests of the World in Denmark charts the connection between Danish Crown’s soy imports and environmental destruction in South America.
The Companies Behind the Burning of the Amazon
August 2019
New maps and analysis from Mighty Earth, based on data from NASA, CONAB, and Imazon and released here for the first time, show which companies are most closely linked to the burning of the Amazon.
Cargill: The Worst Company in the World
July 2019
Report documents decades of bad acts by US-based agribusiness giant, Cargill, and highlights the need for urgent action.
Growing the Good
October 2018
Report from the Changing Markets Foundation and Mighty Earth reveals that there is a complete lack of public policies in place to ensure the food sector is part of the solution to climate change.
The Avoidable Crisis
March 2018
Investigation by Mighty Earth, Rainforest Foundation Norway, and Fern reveals large-scale deforestation, fires, and human rights abuses in Argentina and Paraguay’s Gran Chaco connected to the global meat industry.
Still At It
May 2017
The "Still At It" investigation found that agriculture giants Cargill and Bunge driving new deforestation the size of about 10,000 football fields in Latin America– just months after these companies were linked to deforestation at the same sites in Bolivia’s Amazon basin and Brazil’s vast Cerrado savannah forest.
Ultimate Mystery Meat
February 2017
The report reveals the secrets about where the feed for Burger King’s chicken, bacon, and beef come from, and shows that these companies are linked to massive, systematic deforestation to clear sloth and jaguar habitat in Latin America.