Brazil's Bolsonaro Unveils Bill to Open Indigenous Lands to Mining, Oil and Gas Exploration
10 February
Politics
Uncontacted indigenous group in the Brazilian Amazon. © G. Miranda / FUNAI / Survival / Mongabay
By Jan Rocha
President Jair Bolsonaro pressed forward with a "dream" initiative sending a bill to the Brazilian Congress on Wednesday that would open indigenous reserves in the Amazon and elsewhere to development, including commercial mining, oil and gas exploration, cattle ranching and agribusiness, new hydroelectric dam projects, and tourism — projects that have been legally blocked under the country's 1988 Constitution.
<p>Justifying the legislation, Bolsonaro explained that "The Indian is a human being exactly like us. They have hearts, feelings, a soul, desires, needs and they are just as Brazilian as we are," so they will welcome economic exploitation inside their territories. Bolsonaro and the <em>bancada ruralista</em> agribusiness and mining lobby, which is very strong in Congress, have eyed the off-limits indigenous lands for decades. Indigenous territories have the best record for forest conservation and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/04/indigenous-groups-amazons-best-land-stewards-under-federal-attack/" target="_blank">land stewardship</a> in Brazil.</p>
<p>Marcio Santilli, a former head of FUNAI, Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, sees Bolsonaro's "dream" legislation very differently. It will "not promote the economic development of the Indians, but guarantee the exploitation by third parties of their natural resources. It would encourage Indians to live from royalties while watching the dispossession of their lands."</p><p>While the legislation would allow impacted indigenous populations to be consulted, they would lack the power of veto, except in cases of <em>garimpo</em> or wildcat mining. The right of consultation on development projects is assured under the International Labour Organization <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/indigenous-tribal/lang--en/index.htm" target="_blank">Convention 169</a>, of which Brazil is a signatory.</p><p>Though the <em>bancada ruralista</em> is strong in Congress, it remains to be seen whether the bill will gain passage. House of Deputies leader Rodrigo Maia has <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/how-weigh-bolsonaros-play-environmental-redemption#.XjwYpIptvq1.facebook" target="_blank">said</a> he will not bring the legislation to a vote.</p><p>Conservationists are convinced that the opening up of indigenous lands to economic exploitation would inevitably lead to extensive deforestation of what are the most densely forested areas of the Amazon, and to the contamination of Amazonian rivers. That sort of wholesale deforestation could lead to far greater Amazon drought and to a rainforest-to-savanna <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">tipping point</a> that would greatly endanger Brazilian agribusiness as a driver of Brazil's economy.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY2OTU4Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NjE5NjE2N30.hWHW9b3FvAvI0ekHLvEePtmK1nAWkYplIkPiDOYS9xY/img.jpg?width=980" id="6a7f2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="056a9ddd168e2d811e3a77524f066e8b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A map showing indigenous reserves and conservation units in the Amazon, as well as deforestation. Mauricio Torres / Mongabay
<p>Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro's chief of staff, praised the bill, claiming it was a "Lei Aurea" for indigenous people — a reference to the 1888 royal decree which freed the slaves in Brazil. From the government's point of view, the legislation is freeing indigenous people, allowing their lands to be invaded by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mining" rel="noopener noreferrer">mining</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" rel="noopener noreferrer">oil and gas</a> companies; <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cattle" rel="noopener noreferrer">cattle</a> ranchers; soy farmers and dam builders, while compensating indigenous communities monetarily.</p><p>Under the Brazilian constitution, demarcated indigenous territories belong to the state, and are for the permanent possession and exclusive use of the indigenous people who have always lived there. Only they can decide what activities are allowed on their lands.</p><p>Bolsonaro's new law is therefore an attempt to override the Constitution, say legal experts. It is almost certain to be greatly modified in Congress, if it passes at all. But, say analysts, the message contained in the bill — that indigenous lands are up for grabs — is what matters.</p><p>Since Bolsonaro's election, conflicts between ruralists and indigenous people have soared. The latest report from CIMI, the Indigenous Missionary Council, shows a steady growth in the number of invasions of indigenous areas, up from 111 in 2018 to 160 in 2019; indigenous leaders say Bolsonaro's speeches and comments have contributed to the increase. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/five-murdered-in-2020-brazilian-amazon-land-conflicts-adding-to-2019-surge/" target="_blank">Five murders</a> due to indigenous and traditional land conflicts occurred in the first weeks of 2020.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY2OTY2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDMwMTExNn0.1IrXSyZtb-IA5RCAnWa_t43s6qY5YLpacqmSYBIx1hE/img.jpg?width=980" id="4dd59" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="94f65ab1124e110995ec099a565d3919" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Uncontacted indigenous group in the Brazilian state of Acre. Gleilson Miranda / Governo do Acre / Mongabay
Uncontacted Indigenous Groups at Risk
<p>The new bill as written would allow economic projects even in areas where there are known to be uncontacted Indians. The existence of 28 such groups in the Amazon region has been confirmed, out of 115 believed to exist.</p><p>But the bill isn't the only potential threat to uncontacted tribes. The day before Bolsonaro announced his legislation, FUNAI appointed an evangelical preacher and agency outsider to head the Department for Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (CGIIRC). To accomplish this, FUNAI had to revoke its own long-established rule that only a qualified staff member could be chosen to head such a sensitive bureau.</p><p>The new head, Ricardo Lopes Dias, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/05/brazil-indigenous-tribes-missionary-agency-ricardo-lopes-dias-christianity-disease" target="_blank">strong views</a> regarding the conversion of indigenous people to Christianity. He is a former missionary for the controversial New Tribes Mission, a Florida-based evangelical organization, and worked from 1997 to 2007 in the Vale do Javari indigenous reserve, in Amazonas state. There, according to Matsés indigenous leaders — who protested his presence — he "manipulated part of the Matsés population to found a new village" where an evangelical church would be built. The New Tribes Mission has been accused of causing death and disease among the tribes it worked with in the 1970s, subjecting them to enforced conversion to evangelical Christianity. Lopes Dias has a degree in anthropology.</p><p>Isolated or uncontacted indigenous peoples are usually survivors of larger groups which were decimated by disease or violence when the military dictatorship (ruling from 1964-1985) forced roads through ancestral lands in the Amazon during the 1960s and 70s. In some cases up to 90 percent of local populations died. This led FUNAIi, in the 1980s, after the dictatorship ended, to introduce a policy of non-contact, designating a "no go" zone protecting the survivors, who became known as "isolated Indians."</p><p>The choice by the Bolsonaro administration of an evangelical missionary to head the department, according to experts, indicates a shift in this policy, and has been greeted with dismay by indigenous organizations, who regard it as a means of opening up uncontacted tribes under the protection of FUNAI, and putting their cosmological and ethical belief systems at risk from religious fundamentalism.</p><p>Well known anthropologist Manuela Cunha said, "the mission of the CGIIRC is to protect these peoples from invasions of loggers, miners, drug traffickers and any others, like missionaries, who do not respect their way of life. To choose a missionary — above all one who has tried to convert indigenous people — to head the CGIIRC is totally contradictory to what the law says."</p><p>However, the choice of Lopes Dias is only the latest example in what seems to be FUNAI's deliberate policy over the last year of replacing experienced, qualified staff with military officers and evangelical preachers. Twenty of FUNAI's 39 regional coordinators have been removed under the new administration — almost all were replaced with serving or retired military officers.</p><p>Bolsonaro, this week decided to enlarge his "dream" world even further, extending it to fishing. Apparently still smarting from the fine he received in 2012 (and which he never paid) for being caught illegally sport fishing in a protected reserve in Rio. Police Colonel Homero Cerqueira, head of ICMBio, the agency in charge of Brazil's 334 conservation units, has just authorized "recreational fishing" in all of them, including the most environmentally sensitive preserves.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY2OTY2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODI1ODg1MX0.ihnZ3S0Kb_5xGOl4b1k8XT92kBLs1JxS2A-OlGUrLlk/img.jpg?width=980" id="cf2d6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4bb9ea8afed9c5b1342e5f674222f72d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/bolsonaro-sends-congress-bill-to-open-indigenous-lands-to-mining-fossil-fuels/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>Evidence photo of Jair Bolsonaro upon his 2012 arrest for illegal fishing in a conservation area; he never paid the fine and after becoming president had the IBAMA employee who arrested him sacked. IBAMA / Mongabay
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By Dan Nosowitz
When we think of dangerous gases emitted by cattle, the logical first thought is of methane, let loose into the air by burps and farts to contribute to climate change. But cattle are complex creatures in their diversity of noxious fumes, and the FDA just approved the first drug to treat a lesser-known one.
<p>Cattle produce ammonia—well, sort of. <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/nitrogen-ammonia-emissions-and-the-dairy-cow" target="_blank">According to Penn State</a>, it would be more accurate to say that cattle are very inefficient at breaking down nitrogen, which they take in as part of their diet. They pass that nitrogen out mostly in urine, where it's reasonably harmless. But there are enzymes in cattle feces that, when they mix with cattle urine, form ammonia and ammonia is not reasonably harmless. This is a problem at its worst in indoor facilities, especially larger farms and indoor dairy farms, where liquid and solid waste combine on floors.</p><p>Aside from the fact that ammonia smells really bad and can be an irritant for humans and animals around it, ammonia can also contribute to something called eutrophication. Eutrophication is the process by which, in this case, ammonia goes into water sources and promotes the mass growth of algae and other organisms, throwing off ecosystems and sometimes choking waterways. Excess of algae on the surface of ponds and lakes can end up killing marine animals.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/FDAInBrief/ucm625209.htm" target="_blank">FDA this week sent its official approval</a> of a drug called Experior, the first approved drug tasked with reducing gas produced by waste. According to studies conducted by both Elanco, the company that makes Experior, and others, Experior has no known health effects on cattle, with treated cattle showing about the same growth patterns and ailments as non-treated cattle.</p><p>There are, of course, other solutions to the ammonia problem. Experior reduces ammonia production by 14 to 18 percent, according to its FDA filing. Great! <a href="http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/agriculture/best-management-practices-for-reducing-ammonia-emissions-beef-cattle-nutrition-1-631c/" target="_blank">But other studies have been done</a> in which farmers simply feed their cattle less nitrogen-containing protein—primarily soy—and those studies have shown that simply a better diet can reduce ammonia by up to 40 percent. Experior seems good! But feeding cattle appropriate diets—like grass—might also be good. Or better.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="http://modernfarmer.com/2018/11/fda-approves-first-waste-gas-reduction-drug-for-cattle/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Mark Hibbett
By Mary Ann Lieser
A group of teens gather quietly in the predawn darkness. Dressed in warm clothing, they meet before breakfast to help capture and pack broiler chickens to be taken to a slaughterhouse. They fed, watered and watched the birds grow; now they prepare them for their final trip. Eventually, the birds will return as meat and be cooked for the teens to eat.
<p>High school students at Olney Friends School, located on 350 acres near Barnesville, Ohio, witness the cycle of birth and death time and again during their four years on campus. Founded in 1837 to serve the children of Quaker families, Olney has always had a farm program and students have been involved in its operation to varying degrees.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY0ODgzNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDQ3ODMzMH0.Hv2P71uO3Kr5u6c6CqsgiU030BYRGlacaFvvuW5_qHQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="345de" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ad98a26f4507bea0e2cb581967a267e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mark Hibbett</small></p><p>During the past decade, Olney has integrated farm work and food production into every aspect of student life, from the barn to the kitchen to the classroom. In 2015, Olney became the nation's first USDA certified organic campus.</p><p>"Olney has had conservation practices to protect the environment in place for a hundred years," said Don Guindon, farm manager. Guindon spent his childhood on the school farm, where his father served for decades in the position he now holds. He's continued the sustainable practices—the use of crop rotation, cover crops and contour plowing—that help maintain <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/it-takes-a-village-of-microbes-to-make-healthy-soil-20170802" target="_blank">soil fertility </a>and combat erosion. The farm also produces and uses about 40 tons of compost annually, utilizing manure and kitchen waste from the school as well as the autumn leaves gathered by the nearby town.</p><p>The Olney school farm has 52 beef cattle, eight goats, 150 laying chickens and as many as 800 meat chickens. Students fatten a varying number of feeder pigs each year, produce hay for their livestock, and grow a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Constantly looking to diversify, they have recently added <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sanctuary/how-your-yard-can-support-wild-bees-20170526" target="_blank">beekeeping</a> to their repertoire—they currently have two active hives and hope to have five later this year.</p><p>One week the farmers might lecture the biology class about artificial insemination. The next week the class might visit the greenhouse to help pollinate lemon trees by hand to provide a bigger harvest. An art class is working on designs to remodel a portion of the greenhouse. Farm skills are well integrated into the classroom.</p><p>The school has a diverse student body with many international students—30 percent of the student body—who speak English as a second language. Most of Olney's approximately 50 students live on campus full time. The cafeteria serves three meals a day, seven days a week and manages to use food that derives about 40 percent from the farm or local area.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY0ODkwMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjY1MDQ1MH0.k0cM4fsS7t99Znh3aWXZghB9rJR9WPAnCu02EOSlpyE/img.jpg?width=980" id="38e26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d8d44a0c91ab49b8689988678604ca55" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Mark Hibbett</small></p><p>The staff is looking at ways to nudge that number up by using homesteading practices to preserve more of the harvest. Mark Hibbett, assistant farm manager, is exploring possibilities: using the farm's cabbage to make kimchi, using strawberries to make preserves and using eggs to make noodles. And he's looking for ways students can be involved in each step.</p><p>Olney already adjusts the farming schedule to maximize the possibilities for student participation. Some crops are planted late so the teens, who are gone over summer break, can help with the harvest when they return to campus.</p><p>Freshman Izraa Rosa grew up in a vegan family and says his parents appreciated knowing that the food at Olney is locally sourced and pesticide-free. For Rosa, who's from Cleveland, the biggest benefit of the farm program is that he's nudged out of his comfort zone. "I grew up in the city, where my friends and I were careful not to get our shoes scuffed up. Now I get my hands dirty and I love it. I'm more open-minded and open to new experiences."</p><p>Adam Dyer, the newest member of the farm staff, said that "any time students help with morning chores, they realize how much work goes into everything. Those eggs don't just appear on our plates at breakfast. Someone has to come down at 6 o'clock and collect them."</p><p>Olney has always had a strong farm identity, but the school's goal is not necessarily to graduate <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/republicans-and-democrats-agree-the-us-needs-more-organic-farmers-20180504" target="_blank">future farmers</a>. Graduates go on to four-year colleges, and few if any work in agriculture later. "Our goal is well-rounded citizens who are smart consumers with social awareness. The farm is a great place to absorb lessons in the complexity of sustainable systems," Guindon points out.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzY0ODkwOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzk1MDU1Nn0.0CL6xKPdlgzC3cfSiQbcCGjm5BLemJqLNVfKkJKFL6I/img.jpg?width=980" id="8d402" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="08f14db44aa2c0918c896d8583c947d6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."> Mark Hibbett</small></p><p>One of the most popular ways to absorb those lessons at Olney is to help tend its goats. When the babies are born, students watch the mothers clean them, then they make sure the babies are moving and active and getting milk. "When the students are there for every step of the process, they own it," Guindon said. Six does recently gave birth to 13 kids and a crew of 19 students trained as goat midwives took turns spending nights in the barn, watching for signs of early labor.<br></p><p>Antonia Sigmon is a senior who has been involved in as many farm activities as possible during the last four years, from picking potatoes to clipping goats' hooves. During the winter of her freshman year, many of the goat kids were born and she remembers how magical it seemed walking in the snow and the moonlight down to the barn, where she took the midnight shift to bottle-feed them.</p><p>"I've been excited about working with the animals ever since," she said. "And I like being in contact with the land and everything that's growing."</p><p>Olney still honors its Quaker roots. Twice a week the students participate in traditional waiting worship, when the school gathers for about 20 minutes to reflect quietly as a group. Weather permitting, evening collection might be held in the orchard when the trees are in bloom, in the hay mow when the first cutting of hay is fragrant, or in the barn where the sound of the cows' breathing is audible. And evening collection is sometimes held in the goat barn where the midwife crew brings the young goats out to play.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-high-school-where-learning-to-farm-is-a-graduation-requirement-20180509" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em></p>
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Cows grazing illegally on recently deforested rainforest land within Jamanxim National Forest, a federally protected area in the state of Pará, Brazil. Marcio Isensee
By Anna Sophie Gross
"The cow is the worst environmental problem in the Amazon, and in the world," says Greenpeace's Paulo Adario, speaking out in a new documentary which this April won the One Hour prize at the Film Research and Sustainable Development Festival ((FReDD) earlier this month.
<p>In his ground-breaking documentary, <em><a href="http://sobapatadoboi.com/" target="_blank">Grazing the Amazon</a>,</em> Director Marcio Isensee e Sa alerts audiences to the fact that approximately one fifth of the Amazon has already been cut down, and attests that nearly 80 percent of this <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a> is attributable to the cattle industry. The film traces the history of the Amazon's invasion by entrepreneurial ranchers, and examines the responsibility of all major actors in the supply chain, including livestock growers, slaughterhouses and government.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzYyMzA1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5OTc5NTgzNX0.1Gx3z3-ejy6zHaoGWD1ktRhStKqxYj0Knj6OADebj70/img.jpg?width=980" id="b990e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3504d07cd93affcff46a3bd8bc9f3aec" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Documentary director, Marcio Isensee e Sá in action aboard an IBAMA environmental agency helicopter during a federal operation to crack down on illegal deforestation inside Jamanxim National Forest, Novo Progresso municipality, Pará state. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Bernardo Camara</small></p><p>Throughout the documentary, Amazonian ranchers operating in deforestation hotspots voice a recurring theme: a sense of entitled impunity which flies in the face of government land use restrictions and imposed environmental fines. According to analysts, ranchers' flaunting of the law is largely facilitated by the <em>bancada ruralista</em>, the agribusiness lobby which has <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/brazilian-lawmakers-funded-by-donors-guilty-of-environmental-crimes-report/" target="_blank">a huge influence on Brazilian politics</a>—this powerful caucus includes just under half of all deputies in the lower house of congress, dominates policymaking by the Temer administration, and often panders to ranchers' interests.<br></p><p>In perhaps the most explosive revelation of the film, which documents this marriage between agribusiness and politics, former Minister for the Environment, José Sarney Filho, tells the filmmakers that he has advance knowledge of the impending <em>Carne Fria </em>(Cold Flesh) sting operation, which took place in March 2017, and saw huge meatpacking companies penalized for deforestation taking place within their supply chain.</p><p>This interview takes place mere days before Sarney Filho released a video directed at key agricultural sector players, apologizing for the untimely nature of the federal operation, and claiming that he had not been warned in advance by Brazil's environmental agency that the sting was going to take place.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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</p><p><br></p><h3><strong>Cattle Ranching Long Linked to Deforestation</strong></h3><p>The documentary provides considerable historical background as to how ranching originally came to drive Amazon deforestation. Using interviews and archive footage, Sa shows how the Brazilian government began incentivizing occupation of the then largely untouched Amazon by entrepreneurs and ranchers in the 1960s, looking to colonize the land before foreigners did. Nationally funded roads were cut through the rainforest throughout the 1970s, and would-be ranchers were encouraged to transform public land into pasture. The incentive: If the ranchers did not deforest at least 50 percent of the property they were working, they were not awarded a land title by the government.</p><p>Often, the tree cutting was accomplished by manual labor working in conditions analogous to slavery. One rancher tells how he and a neighbor coerced 200 men into felling trees on their parcel of land in 1994.</p><p>"We rented a big shed, hired and set up a cook inside and gave plenty of cachaça [an alcoholic drink made from sugarcane] to these men. We went to every brothel, hotel and street corner and picked up men, paying their bills and leading them inside the shed. Two gunmen stayed at the front door and two at the back so no one could flee. Kind of held there against their will, right? We wouldn't let them leave."</p><p>He tells how the police supported the operation, marching the captive men single file from the shack to a ferry so that they could not escape. Upon landing, they were force marched through 15 kilometers (9 miles) of forest and told to begin cutting down trees.</p><p>"Was this forced labor?" he asks, laughing. "Perhaps it was, but there really wasn't an alternative. That was the reality of that world."</p><p>It wasn't until the 1990s that environmental NGOs got wind of the alarming rates of deforestation taking place in the Amazon. In 2004, news that a forest area had been lost equivalent in size to Belgium resulted in international pressure being placed on slaughterhouses to stop buying meat from ranchers who had illegally deforested their land.</p><p>In 2009, the three major Brazilian slaughterhouses operating in the Amazon—JBS, Marfrig and Minerva—<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/the-prosecutor-who-lassoed-deforestation/" target="_blank">signed zero-deforestation agreements</a> with Greenpeace and the Brazilian government in which they vowed to only buy cattle from ranchers who had behaved within the law.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzYyMzA3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTQ5OTA4OH0.TdaM-zxsPbuG-withbFHs5nOT8m8JmcFdG_GLyiWWGw/img.jpg?width=980" id="246f3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9b19c2a5ad493a917494e184632f30a6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Documentary director, Marcio Isensee e Sá filming illegal cattle pasture in Jamanxim National Forest, a protected area located in Novo Progresso municipality, Pará state.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Bernardo Camara</small></p><h3><strong>Cattle Washing</strong></h3><p>According to the Brazilian Forest Code, landowners in the Amazon can only legally cultivate 20 percent of their property; the rest must be preserved as native vegetation. However, in the historical context of governmental support for deforestation, along with current official lenience regarding enforcement of the law, many ranchers remain reluctant to comply with the forest code, seeing little benefit in it for them, and seeking loopholes by which they can transform their land from unprofitable forest to lucrative pastureland.</p><p>Many interviewees in the film are strikingly candid concerning their self-interest. One rancher explains that it is simply much more profitable to raise cattle on land in the Amazon than it is to produce anything else: "I'll never stop raising cattle. Never. As long as I'm still blinking my eyelids, I'll keep struggling on," he says. This man claims that his fellow ranchers find ways to keep on illegally selling livestock to slaughterhouses, even after being caught deforesting.</p><p>One technique: continue fattening cattle on illegally deforested land, then transfer the stock to a friend's legally cleared pasture just days before the animals go to the slaughterhouse, concealing their true origin. Or the ranchers may falsify records, putting portions of the land they own and graze under other family members' names. These techniques are known collectively as "cattle-washing," and are rife in the Brazilian Amazon, say experts.</p><p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10113-017-1234-1" target="_blank">Recent research</a>, published in January of this year, corroborates the stories told in the film, offering evidence that the zero-deforestation cattle agreements made with slaughterhouses are having little to no effect on ranchers' behavior. The researchers cross-checked data compiled regarding the locations of cattle vaccinations, and found that hundreds of thousands of cattle continue to graze on areas in Southwest Pará state which were meant to be excluded from the beef supply chain, per the terms of slaughterhouse cattle agreements.</p><p>A key problem: the lack of transparency in the nation's beef supply chain. The major meat companies in Brazil operate through a complex supply chain; livestock owners are constantly buying, selling, and reselling cattle, moving them from ranch to ranch, which makes it exceedingly difficult to determine the origin of each head of cattle. While meat companies JBS, Marfrig and Minerva have achieved good oversight of their direct suppliers, they have little to no insight into their indirect suppliers—and that, say experts, is where the grand majority of cattle washing occurs.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzYyMzA0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDYyNTI5Nn0.6v1bSJrZvRMq4JGTIUX97P9PlaW9_uSaVyeF994c6PQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="d83e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="14e1cebf0f309046a48b01c8f08fdc86" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Smoke signals the use of fire, a primitive but effective tool used to clear away forest in Marcelândia, Mato Grosso. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Marcio Isensee</small></p><h3><strong>Sustainable Beef Offers Hope for Forests</strong></h3><p>Not all the news is bad for forests. The documentary strikes a hopeful tone when it focuses on sustainable cattle ranching, practiced by a few Amazonian landowners. One interviewee describes how he makes grazing on already degraded land 14 times more efficient than that achieved by other ranchers: he divides up his land into quadrants, plants lots of grass everywhere, then rotates his cattle from one grassy segment to the next.</p><p>"We wanted to include people [in the documentary] that are more progressive and are trying to do the right thing," explained Paulo Barreto, a senior researcher at <a href="http://imazon.org.br/" target="_blank">Imazon</a> who worked on the documentary. "We knew that these people existed and it's good to have them saying in their own words that we don't need to deforest anymore."</p><p>The challenge faced by environmentalists: how to scale up these rarely practiced, but viable, sustainable ranching techniques.</p><p>"These methods are pretty straightforward. However, they require some skill and lots of investment to work, which are both conditions that are rarely met by Amazonian farmers," said Eduardo Pegurier, professor at PUC University in Rio de Janeiro, editor of the <a href="http://www.oeco.org.br/" target="_blank">((O)) eco</a> news service in Brazil, and one of the co-creators of <em>Grazing the Amazon.</em></p><p>Government laxness regarding cattle-driven deforestation, and a failure by the state to offer incentives to encourage sustainable ranching, are partly to blame. There are at present few promising initiatives aimed at improving pasture productivity, and at accurately monitoring the deforestation that occurs along the indirect and direct supply chain leading to slaughterhouses.</p><p>One existing sustainability program is run by Pecsa, a ranch-management firm based in Mato Grosso state which helps farmers transform highly degraded land into productive pasture, thereby reducing new deforestation. Pecsa takes over ranches for between six to eight years, and has a record of making the properties it supervises roughly seven times more productive, while also tracking indirect and direct cattle suppliers. The firm, which currently manages 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres), receives external funding from The European Investment Fund, which means that contracting ranchers pay nothing for the service.</p><p>"We intend to expand in our region of Mato Grosso," the firm's creator, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/01/is-intensification-helping-the-cattle-industry-go-amazon-deforestation-free/" target="_blank">Laurent Micol</a>, told Mongabay. "Once it reaches an adequate scale, we'll be ready to replicate it elsewhere in the Amazon."</p><p>However, Barrreto warns, the success of such sustainability schemes rests heavily on a swift response from the market. Amazon deforestation is currently very profitable for cattle ranchers, and that needs to change if sustainable livestock raising is to have a chance.</p><p>Many argue that in order to sever the link between deforestation and cattle, the government needs to put financial deforestation disincentives in place. Ranchers must either face substantial fines or prison terms for breaking the law, and be prevented from supplying to the national and global market when they deforest.</p><p>Barreto believes that the government's current lack of enforcement capacity, and its unwillingness to severely punish environmental offenders, indicates the need for a new approach. International and national beef producers, he says, should enforce strict rules regarding who slaughterhouses are buying from, and who they are funding.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzYyMzA0Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTYwNzc5M30.BF0uMFi5E9mrwhKNl8M7Zy-lDepv7XBbcUH3zpi6NXs/img.jpg?width=980" id="a7597" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0f01999afaf43f2b5fbeb63d5c581cdf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Recently deforested land in the Brazilian Amazon being used to raise cattle, Novo Progresso municipality, Pará state. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Marcio Isensee</small></p><h3><strong>Putting Added State Pressure on Slaughterhouses</strong></h3><p>Many environmental activists advocate for the application of increased legal pressure on slaughterhouses who buy beef from inside Legal Amazonia. They note that just <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/study-links-most-amazon-deforestation-to-128-slaughterhouses/" target="_blank">110 slaughterhouses are responsible</a> for the processing of 93 percent of all cattle in the Brazilian Amazon. With state pressure, supply chain transparency could be increased among these meat processors, allowing them to trace all of the meat they purchase, including that coming from indirect suppliers, the source of most of the deforestation.</p><p>At the moment, none of the three major slaughterhouses have such monitoring programs.</p><p>Barreto emphasized the critical role that Brazil's independent Federal Prosecutor Offices could play in investigating slaughterhouses and holding them accountable for failing to monitor their supply chains. In fact, many Amazonian federal prosecutors have recently called on slaughterhouses to submit supplier audits.</p><p>Pará state became the first to <a href="http://www.oeco.org.br/reportagens/tac-da-carne-no-para-irregularidades-dos-frigorificos-passam-em-branco/" target="_blank">release this type of detailed data</a> last month. Meatpacking companies were asked to answer questions relating to the cattle they purchased in 2016 and, according to the data, more than 146,000 head of cattle were acquired from deforested land. JBS performed worst in comparison to other audited companies. The firm accounted for 84,420 head of cattle, 57 percent of livestock that had come from illegally deforested areas that year, and it received a 19 percent non-compliance score. The MasterBoi company raised the second highest livestock count on deforested land, at 28,231 head, with Frigol the third highest at 8,290 head and Aliança the fourth highest at 7,530 head.</p><p>In what is deemed a disappointing response by environmentalists, the Federal Prosecutors' Office in Pará chose not to adopt sanctions against the slaughterhouses who performed badly in the cattle deforestation audits. According to Attorney General Daniel Azeredo, who has been at the helm of zero-deforestation agreements since 2009, it is now up to the market to reward the companies with the best audit results, something few experts expect to happen.</p><p>The Mato Grosso state Prosecutors' Office has yet to release the results of the livestock/deforestation audits it has received from slaughterhouses. The Attorney General of Mato Grosso told Mongabay that no date for the release of this data has been set, because prosecutors have been unable to overcome the slaughterhouses' data protection policies.</p><p>One of the cattle producers interviewed for <em>Grazing the Amazon</em> summarized the current situation: "The law is weak, it punishes nobody."</p><p>For now, with the government actively employing neither stick nor carrot, it seems little will happen to change the status quo or to end illegal deforestation due to cattle ranching in the Amazon. It is conceivable, though analysts say unlikely, that the situation could change with October's Brazilian elections.</p><h3><strong>Following the Money</strong></h3><p>Barreto believes that there are other things that could be done to solve the problem besides penalizing those who buy cattle fattened on newly deforested land. Banks have historically been major funders of big meat processing conglomerates in Brazil, and these financial institutions could bring pressure to bear on slaughterhouses with known connections to illegal deforestation within their supply chains.</p><p>For example, Brazil's gigantic national development bank, BNDES, has a 21 percent stake in JBS, and so could put economic pressure on the meatpacker. In fact, the government-run Norwegian Oil Fund, which invested $144,000 in JBS, <a href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/04/04/norway-oil-fund-omits-meatpacker-jbs-deforestation-watch-list/" target="_blank">came under fire</a> earlier this month for failing to call into question proven deforestation in the meatpacking company's supply chain.</p><p>Perhaps as importantly, the public needs to be made aware of the alarming extent of rainforest destruction occurring at the hands of the cattle industry. Which is where <em>Grazing the Amazon</em> comes in, a film produced by<em> <a href="http://www.oeco.org.br/" target="_blank">((O)) eco</a> and <a href="http://imazon.org.br/" target="_blank">Imazon</a>, and </em>sponsored by the <a href="https://www.moore.org/" target="_blank">Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.norad.no/en/front/" target="_blank">Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)</a>. It offers invaluable insight into the environmental damage caused by ranchers, and provides a model for a sustainable and economically lucrative alternative.</p><p>The ultimate practical solution is clear: Academic researchers and environmentalists agree that there is already a wealth of degraded land in the Amazon which could be profitably utilized by cattle ranchers; there is simply no need to deforest further. All that is required is the will, the sanctions and the market incentives, to bring positive change into being.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/new-film-shines-light-on-cattle-industry-link-to-amazon-deforestation/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Kyle Spradley / MU College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources / Flickr
By Daisy Dunne
Billed as a more environmentally friendly way to rear cattle, grass-fed beef has been the red meat of choice for many a climate-conscious carnivore.
Indeed, research has suggested that grazing cattle can help offset global warming by stimulating soil to take up more carbon from the atmosphere. This process, known as soil carbon sequestration, is one way of reducing the amount of human-induced greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
<p style="">However, a <a href="http://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project-files/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> released Tuesday by the <a href="http://www.fcrn.org.uk/" target="_blank">Food Climate Research Network</a> at the University of Oxford found that cattle fed on grass release more greenhouse gas emissions than they are able to offset through <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil">soil</a> carbon sequestration.</p><p style="">This means that grass-fed beef is "in no way a climate solution," said the lead author of the report.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"></p><div id="e41b8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2T19ZM1507057892"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="915031174342414336" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New Study Finds Methane Emissions From Cows 11% Higher https://t.co/dLTntNIBOz @dotearth @energyaction</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/915031174342414336">1506995407.0</a></blockquote></div><p></p><p style=""><strong>Carbon from cattle</strong></p><p style="">Livestock contribute to human-induced <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a> by producing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/methane">methane</a>, a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases" target="_blank">potent greenhouse gas</a>. Cattle release methane through belching and passing wind, as well as in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231099001041" target="_blank">manure</a>. Livestock also contribute to global warming indirectly through <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforestation</a>.</p><p style="">Overall, the livestock industry is responsible for <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377840111002021" target="_blank">around 15 percent</a> of global human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 80 percent of these emissions come directly from ruminant animals, such as cattle.</p><p style="">The majority of the world's cattle are "<a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/animalwelfare/the_impact_of_industrial_grain_fed_livestock_production_on_food_security_2012.pdf" target="_blank">grain-fed</a>." In most cases, this means that the animals begin life grazing in the field, before being transferred indoors to be fed on grains, such as corn and soy.</p><p>However, a growing number of livestock producers are choosing to feed their cattle on a diet purely of grass. These "<a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/animalwelfare/white_oak.pdf" target="_blank">grass-fed</a>" animals spend the majority of their days grazing outside.</p><p>Though both types of cattle contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions, <a href="https://ntpressoffice.wordpress.com/tag/whats-your-beef/" target="_blank">it has previously been suggested</a> that grass-fed cows could have a lower carbon footprint.</p><p style="">This could be because grazing cattle can stimulate plant growth, which in turn leads to higher levels of soil carbon sequestration, said <a href="http://www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/people/tara-garnett" target="_blank">Dr. Tara Garnett</a>, lead author of the new report. She told a press conference this week:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Animals help with [carbon sequestration] by nibbling away and chomping away, which stimulates the plants to grow. That can cause the plants to put down deep roots."</p><p style="">This process means that more organic carbon could become fixed in the soil, Garnett said.</p><p style=""><strong>Chewing the fat</strong></p><p style="">To understand the impact of grazed cattle, researchers from the Food Climate Research Network spent two years analyzing the available scientific research on grass-fed livestock sector emissions, as well as its potential impacts on carbon sequestration.</p><p style="">The researchers reported that grass-fed beef contributes very little to the global protein supply, accounting for just one gram of protein, per person, per day. In comparison, ruminants as a whole contribute 13g of protein to the global average protein intake, per person, per day.</p><p style="">The chart below shows how different animals and crop contribute to the average daily protein intake.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMTQyMjQ5My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5OTA2OTEzN30.7tDaSRz6kfkntDNJQ7F-t5eviI5c-6-5sFa7o2ICR_E/img.jpg?width=980" id="d9798" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="faeba4e7fbd4f55b8f3d262b23ebfa35" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small placeholder="add caption..." class="image-media media-caption">The average global protein intake derived from different animals and plants per person, per day, in grams. </small><small placeholder="add photo credit..." class="image-media media-photo-credit">Garnett et al. (2017) Data Source: FAO</small></p><p style="">Despite making only a marginal contribution to global protein intake, grazed beef accounts for between a quarter and a third of all greenhouse emissions from ruminant livestock, said Garnett:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It's worth comparing [emissions to protein intake] because grazed beef have reasonably significant emissions when compared to the amount of protein that they provide."</p><p style="">The researchers also analyzed the total carbon sequestration potential of the world's grasslands. They reported that, if all of this grassland were grazed on by ruminants, 20 to 60 percent of the annual emissions of grass-feed could be offset by carbon sequestration.<br></p><p style="">However, this estimate assumes that the environmental conditions are right for soil carbon sequestration to take place, Garnett added:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It's an optimistic estimate. The climate and the rainfall conditions needs to be right [for soil carbon sequestration to take place]. If you overgraze the grassland, then you will get an annual loss of carbon from the soil."</p><p style=""><strong>Climate solution?</strong></p><p style="">Despite the potential impacts of soil carbon sequestration, grass-fed beef is, overall, a net contributor to carbon emissions and, therefore, a driver of human-caused global warming. Garnett said:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"This report concludes that grass-fed livestock are not a climate solution. Grazing livestock are net contributors to the climate problem, as are all livestock. Rising animal production and consumption, whatever the farming system and animal type, is causing damaging greenhouse gas release and contributing to changes in land use."</p><p style="">The research suggests that the best way to tackle livestock emissions is to cut global levels of meat consumption, said Garnett.</p><p style="">"Ultimately, if high-consuming individuals and countries want to do something positive for the climate, maintaining their current consumption levels but simply switching to grass-fed beef is not a solution. Eating less meat, of all types, is."<br></p><p style=""><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/grass-fed-beef-will-not-help-tackle-climate-change" target="_blank">Carbon Brief</a>.</em></p>
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