Amazon Says Goodbye to World’s Largest Meat Exporter

Last month, I wrote about the world’s largest leather exporter leaving the Amazon. This week there is even bigger news. The world’s largest meat exporter is leaving.

In Coordination with Previous Amazon Moratoria

It is a little later than other leading beef exporters, but apparently after some deep thought (perhaps) this huge meat company has decided the Amazon should be protected.

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Soya traders agreed to a moratorium on buying products destroying the Amazon in July, which was one great step in much greater protection of the Amazon. However, beef is the major issue because 80% of Amazon deforestation is due to cattle farming.

As the other companies had done, the leading meat exporter (JBS-Friboi) also agreed to not buy meat from farms that used slave labor or that raise their cattle on protected or indigenous lands.

Greenpeace Brought the World to Protect the Amazon

Perhaps the biggest push to leave the Amazon came from Greenpeace. Through the release of leading reports and publications — “Slaughtering the Amazon,” “Eating up the Amazon” and “Amazon Bulletin” — they put a lot of international pressure on these major food exporters.

Marcio Astrini of Greenpeace Amazon says: “This is good news for the Amazon and the global climate. By the sheer force of its size, the commitment of JBS-Friboi to stop destroying the Amazon will help reduce the pressure that the cattle sector has been exerting on the forest. It will also force thousands of its suppliers in the Northern region of Brazil to strictly follow the environmental and land tenure legislation, and to respect the biodiversity and the rights of the indigenous people in the region.”

Super-sized Beef Exporter

Formerly, Bertin, the largest leather exporter in the world and Brazil’s second largest beef exporter left the Amazon under the same agreement. However, this company was just bought by JBS-Friboi last week. Now, the combined partnership have the capability to process 40,000 cattle per day in Brazil! Wow, that’s a lot of cows.

International Coordination

This is one of the biggest environmental wins of the year. However, Greenpeace is asking that world leaders do a little more.

In an effort to help Brazil deal with the economic difficulties this imposes on the country, Greenpeace and others (i.e. the United Nations Organization) are asking that the leading developed countries of the world supply Brazil (and other developing nations) with funds to help them with this and other such efforts. As Greenpeace states: “a global fund, financed from emission allowances, should be created to help developing countries bring deforestation to zero by 2020.”

One of the biggest successes of the decade, perhaps, people and businesses around the world are happy with this new agreement from one of the world’s leading companies to protect the Amazon.

via Greenpeace

Related Articles:
1) World’s Largest Leather Exporter Backs Out of Amazon
2) 80% of Amazon Deforestation Stems from Cattle Ranching.
3) Greenpeace Praises Brazil

Image Credit 1: National Wildlife Federation International Team via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Image Credit 4: alextorrenegra via flickr under a Creative Commons license