A new report by Mighty Earth in partnership with Repórter Brasil and AidEnvironment links JBS and other meatpackers Marfrig and Minerva to what has been dubbed a “War on Nature,” in the Pantanal wetlands...

A key compound of the deadly defoliant “Agent Orange,” used in the Vietnam War, was sprayed from planes to deliberately kill trees and deforest 81,200 hectares – a vast area four times the size of Amsterdam – on Fazenda Soberana farm in Brazil’s Pantanal, to make way for cattle ranching. Prosecutors called the illegal act “chemical deforestation.”

…“Our study found that of the recent deforestation on five cattle farms supplying the biggest meat packers – JBS, Marfrig and Minerva – some 86% was in the Pantanal…

…investigation found recent deforestation of 4,005 hectares on two cattle farms in the Pantanal, one of which is linked to Claudecy Oliveira Lemes, the same rancher behind the spraying of the highly toxic Agent Orange compound, 2,4-D. The investigation places one of his farms, Fazenda Soberana in Mato Grosso, at the centre of a beef supply chain linking JBS, Marfrig and Minerva and four top supermarket chains in Brazil – Carrefour, Casino/GPA, Grupo Mateus and Sendas/Assaí.

In total, Lemes has been charged for numerous environmental crimes and has been fined the equivalent of US$ 521 million – a record for Mato Grosso…

…Carrefour said it had already blocked two of the five farms identified and three were not on its database…

See Rapid Response Cattle #3: Monitoring deforestation in Brazilian supply chains, August 2024, here