Farmers with properties inside the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Land are among JBS’s indirect suppliers, according to a Greenpeace Brasil study. This Indigenous Land was the most deforested area in Brazil in 2019, and 94% of its territory is registered to private individuals through the Rural Environmental Registry (Cadastro Ambiental Rural – CAR), a self-declaratory system that has been used to give the appearance of legality to land ownership.
A Greenpeace Brasil investigation revealed that cattle raised inside the Serra Ricardo Franco State Park, in Mato Grosso (MT), supplied JBS. The Paredão farm, located within the park, sold at least 4,000 head of cattle to the Barra Mansa farm, which is located outside the protected area and supplied cattle directly to JBS’s meatpacking plant in Pontes e Lacerda. During the same period, this plant exported meat to 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.
In the second audit cycle of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct, JBS had a non-compliance rate of 8.3%, which included the purchase of 2,642 head of cattle sourced directly from land where illegal deforestation occurred after 2009, according to an audit report by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF).
JBS bought cattle from the area with the highest number of fires in the Amazon, according to an investigation by Repórter Brasil. According to the report, the cattle purchased by the company came from a farm located within the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area (APA) in the state of Pará—the conservation unit that recorded the highest number of fires in Brazil in 2019.
JBS continued to buy cattle from farms with areas embargoed for illegal deforestation, even after being fined around R$25 million (approximately US$ 8 million at the time the fines were issued) in 2017 by the Operation Carne Fria, according to an investigation by Repórter Brasil, the British newspaper The Guardian, and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The investigation indicates that the properties belonged to AgroSB, also known as Santa Bárbara, owned by businessman Daniel Dantas, who has a history of socio-environmental violations. At the Lagoa do Triunfo farm—where the deforestation occurred—hundreds of head of cattle were transferred for fattening to another AgroSB property with no environmental infractions, from which the animals were then sold for slaughter at JBS slaughterhouses.
According to a report in O Eco, JBS has stopped disclosing the geographical coordinates of thousands of farms that supply it with cattle. With the closure of its “Confiança desde a Origem” (“Trust from the Source”) system, transparency around its supply chain has decreased, making it more difficult for the public to monitor the origin of the animals slaughtered by the company.
JBS was the company with the most evidence of irregularities—118,459 head of cattle—in the first audit cycle of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC), the agreement between the company, other meatpackers, and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) to curb deforestation in the Amazon region. The audit estimated that 19% of the cattle purchased by JBS showed signs of irregularities.
Repórter Brasil revealed that JBS bought cattle from the mother of Ezequiel Antônio Castanha, who was arrested by the Brazilian Federal Police on charges of being the most prolific Amazon deforester of all time. According to the report, prior to these sales, in February 2013, Ezequiel’s father, Onério Castanha, transferred 1,000 head of cattle registered in his name to Cirineide, Ezequiel’s mother. As stated by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF), father and son were part of a criminal network that invaded public lands, deforested and set fire to the areas to form pastures, and then sold the land as farms along the BR-163 highway.
According to an article in Valor, JBS was notified by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office for buying cattle from farms with irregularities, including areas located within the Marãiwatsédé Indigenous Land in Mato Grosso state, farms that had been embargoed by Ibama and a property that was listed on the “dirty list” of labor analogous to slavery. At the time, according to the MPF, the company was given a deadline to respond since the purchases violated a previous agreement with the company, in which JBS had undertaken not to buy animals from areas associated with this type of irregularities.
A report by Greenpeace International, "Slaughtering the Amazon", revealed that JBS was linked to farms involved in illegal deforestation in the Amazon and in the use of modern slavery. According to the report, the meat from these farms contaminated the supply chains of major global companies such as Carrefour, Walmart, and Tesco. The cattle were slaughtered at meatpacking plants in Mato Grosso and then processed at facilities in the state of São Paulo for export. From the Araputanga (MT) plant, JBS exported fresh meat directly to Europe.
