In its latest report entitled "Seeds of Conflict", Global Witness shared the results of an investigation developed by the organization which revealed that three of the largest global commodity traders, ADM, Bunge, and Cargill, are allegedly trading soybeans from farmers linked to land conflicts and human rights violations in the Bahia community of Capão do Modesto. The location is crossed by the Cerrado, South America's second largest biome, and has become known as the "Soybean Frontier" due to the rapid expansion of soybean cultivation in the region.

According to Global Witness, since 2017, residents of the Capão do Modesto community have been facing "death threats, violence and criminalization, with powerful agricultural producers seeking to forcibly evict them so that they can continue to produce commercial monocultures such as soy and cotton, a mode of production known to be harmful to the environment."

The organization claims that ADM, Bunge and Cargill, by buying soy from these producers, would be contributing to the worsening of land conflicts and to a series of abuses and human rights violations committed by those farmers, in addition to profiting from the development of such trade.

Finally, the report addresses a series of recommendations to the three agribusiness giants, pointing out that the companies "have not yet been able to take sufficient measures to regularize their supply chains".

We invited ADM, Bunge and Cargill to comment on Global Witness' allegations. Bunge and Cargill responded.