JBS, then Bertin, and other meatpackers operating in the Amazon signed a consent decree with the Brazilian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), which came to be known as the “Beef TAC”. The agreement was signed after the MPF of the state of Pará and Ibama— Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the federal agency responsible for enforcing environmental laws and protecting natural resources in Brazil—filed lawsuits in Federal Court against individuals and companies accused of deforestation linked to cattle ranching in Pará. The commitments, which at the time were limited to the state, included not buying from farms with illegal deforestation, farms on the lists of embargoed areas and labor analogous to slavery maintained by the Federal Government, or farms that violated the rights of Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and traditional populations. The decree also required companies to share their list of accredited suppliers with the MPF. The commitment focused exclusively on direct suppliers, without taking into account indirect supplier farms, where most of the deforestation related to cattle ranching occurs.
As published by the MPF in 2023, the results of the audits on the Pará consent decree show that JBS did not reach the levels of compliance considered satisfactory.
