The Greenpeace report, Slaughtering the Amazon, describes how ranches responsible for illegal deforestation sell cattle to slaughterhouses controlled by a handful of Brazilian companies. These ship beef or hides to facilities in the south of Brazil and process them for export. They are often processed again in the importing country.
Greenpeace says records show that cattle from hundreds of farms across the Amazon are mixed and processed in this way, making it currently impossible to trace the origins of products. “In effect, criminal or ‘dirty’ supplies of cattle are ‘laundered’ through the supply chain.”
The investigation focused on three Brazilian companies, Bertin, JBS and Marfrig, which operate slaughterhouses and together control a third of Brazilian beef exports. Greenpeace says satellite images and trade records show that all three companies – part-owned by the Brazilian government– source cattle from farms that have carried out illegal deforestation in the Amazon. It says exports from the south of the country near São Paolo are “polluted” with products from animals raised on deforested land.
Britain is the second largest importer of processed Brazilian beef after the US, taking 50,000 tonnes last year.
Greenpeace says Marfrig facilities export processed beef to Green Isle Foods, an Irish subsidiary of Northern Foods. Product labels show Northern Foods supplies convenience foods that contain the Marfrig meat to Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, the report says. It says Tesco and Marks and Spencer sell tinned Brazilian beef supplied separately by JBS.
Tesco and Marks and Spencer denied the meat came from the Amazon. Marks and Spencer said: “We do not accept and have never used any beef from the Amazon region. We have been working with our Brazilian beef supplier for over 20 years and through the traceability measures we have in place we can ensure that all the product supplied to us by them is from the exact location we specify.”
Sainsbury’s said it used “a small amount of Brazilian beef in our frozen and canned range”. Morrisons said its suppliers provided documents to prove beef was not linked to Amazon deforestation. Asda said it was confident its beef did not come from the Amazon. It said: “If that isn’t the case we’d take that very seriously indeed.”
A Tesco spokesman said: “Our canned beef is sourced from São Paolo, which is about 3,000 km away from the Amazon. I have also been informed that the cows cannot travel more than 300km.”
The report says: “While the blue chip companies behind reputable global brands appear to believe that Amazon sources are excluded from their products, Greenpeace investigations expose for the first time how their blind consumption of raw materials fuels deforestation and climate change.”
Northern Foods said: “The only Brazilian beef we buy for our Green Isle business is cooked beef from a single site in São Paulo state, not in or near the Amazon basin, and not sourcing materials from sites in or near the Amazon basin. The supplier we use, Marfrig, provides certificates to verify the farm source for this plant.”
Marfrig said it only bought cattle from farms not included on a Brazilian government prohibited list. “We have not been informed of any such violations by Greenpeace so cannot comment.” David Adam, The Observer.
Don’t’ they talk rubbish, for instance the Tesco’s spokesman’s “cows can’t travel more than 300km” – a derisory reason for assuming Tesco products don’t contain beef from farms on illegally deforested Amazon rainforest – how far is Brazil from the UK – São Paulo to London is 9,470km considerably greater that the 3,00km the Tesco spokesman quotes. Just using Brazilian beef makes a mockery of Marks and Spencer’s slogan Plan A, because there is no plan B let alone beef from farms on deforested rainforest.