Meatpacking giants fined $64 million for disturbing actions caught during investigation

The Brazilian government has imposed fines on meatpacking companies for violating laws regarding the use of deforested Amazon land.

What’s happening?

Fines and other penalties were imposed on 23 companies and their suppliers for “buying and selling illegally bred livestock” over an area of 160 square kilometers. Associated press reported on October 28. The violators included JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company and a frequent target of government sanctions.

The fines totaled $64 million, and 8,854 cattle were seized. Due to illegal deforestation, the land was not allowed to be used commercially, according to the AP. However, the government documented the sale of 18,000 cattle raised in the restricted areas.

Agropam received the largest fine ($493,000) for purchasing 5,624 cattle. JBS received the fifth-largest fine ($108,000) for buying 1,231 cattle, the AP reported.

Why is this important?

The Amazon is a vital carbon sink that helps suck heat-trapping pollutant gases from the atmosphere, but massive deforestation has eliminated about a fifth of its forest in recent decades. BBC detailed. Another 38% of the area is degraded.

This causes great damage to nature, with a loss of biodiversity, and the Amazon river system dries up. Further deforestation could push the region past turning point, Carbon short reported.

Although meatpacking companies committed to eliminating illegal livestock farming from their supply chains in 2013, deforestation is the result of “extensive livestock farming and clearing of land to sell timber or grow soy,” according to Reuters.

“JBS has been maintaining its Responsible Purchasing Policy for 15 years and has a geospatial monitoring system in place to ensure that the company does not purchase animals from farms involved in illegal deforestation, encroachment on indigenous lands or protected areas embargoed by (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, known as IBAMA),” the company said in a statement.

What is being done about deforestation in the Amazon region?

IBAMA is working to prevent further destruction of the vital natural resource, and Minister of the Environment and Climate change Marina Silva has a long and successful history of activism.

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But JBS agreed to a deal with China earlier this year expand its activities at the expense of the rainforest – and it was approved by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula had taken steps to protect and preserve what is left of the Amazon when he took office last year.

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