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.
