Brazil Fines Meat Ranchers and Packers $64M for Raising and Purchasing Cattle From Deforested Amazon Rainforest

IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency, has fined meat packers and cattle ranchers — including the largest on the planet, JBS — $64 million for buying or raising cattle on illegally deforested land in the Amazon rainforest.

The agency said 69 properties had been identified that had sold a total of 18,000 cattle who had been raised on deforested land, reported Reuters. They also found 23 meat packing companies that had bought the cattle in Amazonas and Para states.

“We are inspecting the production chain to hold offenders accountable for acquiring products from deforestation and to ensure that crime does not pay,” Jair Schmitt, IBAMA’s chief of environmental protection, told The Associated Press.

Launched last week, operation Cold Meat 2 tracked cattle raised on 100 square miles of pastureland banned for commercial use because of illegal deforestation. Agents seized 8,854 head of cattle discovered inside restricted areas.

Cattle ranching is the biggest driver of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Of the area cleared from 1985 to 2023 — 227,800 square miles, slightly larger than the size of France — 90 percent was converted to pasture. Because of this, 14 percent of the Brazilian Amazon is now grazing land, according to the land use monitoring network of nongovernmental organizations, MapBiomas.

Land cleared to sell timber or cultivate soy is also contributing to deforestation in the Amazon.

In 2013, commitments were signed by some meat packers agreeing not to purchase cattle from ranches that had been blacklisted for environmental violations or cleared illegally, Reuters reported.

More than a dozen big agriculture firms, including JBS, have pledged to eliminate supply chain deforestation by 2025, including destruction connected with indirect suppliers whose products are bought by go-betweens that turn around and sell to meat packers.

JBS denied the allegations.

“None of the JBS purchases indicated by IBAMA were made from embargoed areas,” the company said, as reported by Reuters.

“JBS has maintained its Responsible Procurement 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 conservation areas that are under embargo by Ibama,” a statement from JBS said, as The Associated Press reported.

The amount fined to JBS was $108,000 for the purchase of 1,231 cows — the fifth biggest penalty among the companies.

Meatpacker Agropam in Boca do Acre city was given the largest fine of $493,000 for purchasing 5,624 cattle from embargoed areas. The company, known as Frizam, markets beef exclusively in Brazil’s internal market.

Other companies given fines included Frigol, 163 Beef and Mafrico.