December 16, 2022
Audit finds 17% of cattle purchased by JBS comes from 'irregular' ranches
An audit by Brazilian federal prosecutors has found that nearly 17% of cattle purchased by major meatpacker JBS SA in Brazil's Para state in the Amazon rainforest allegedly came from 'irregular' ranches, such as illegal deforestation, Yahoo! News reported.
According to the audit, which looked at cattle purchases between July 2019 and June 2020, the world's largest meatpacker allegedly purchased 93,734 head from rogue ranchers.
The audit discovered 136,172 irregular cattle purchases by JBS and other unlisted meatpackers in the region.
JBS said in a statement that the purchases were made more than two years ago when it had imprecise criteria for ranchers, and the issue had since been resolved.
The audit showed the world's largest meatpacker purchased 93,734 head from unlicensed ranchers. JBS accounted for nearly 69% of the 136,172 irregular cattle purchases made by more than 15 companies in the region.
The audit findings have fueled growing concerns that JBS may be aiding in the destruction of the world's largest rainforest.
Brazilian federal prosecutors said JBS purchased approximately 301,000 head of cattle from illegal ranchers during the previous auditing cycle, which ran from January 2018 to June 2019.
Cattle ranching, as well as clearing land for timber or crop production, are driving deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
In 2013, a number of meatpackers agreed with prosecutors not to buy cattle from ranches that had been illegally cleared since 2008 or that had been blacklisted for environmental crimes.
JBS and more than a dozen other major agriculture firms have also pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2025, including destruction linked to indirect suppliers that sell to middlemen who then sell to meatpackers.
The audit discovered no cattle purchase irregularities linked to Minerva, a JBS competitor and the only other publicly traded company investigated.
- Yahoo! News
