JBS among meatpackers fined as Brazil cracks down on illegal cattle

Brazil’s environmental authorities announced a major operation that seized around 7,000 illegal head of cattle in the Amazon on Thursday. The government also issued fines to several ranchers and slaughterhouses, including JBS NV, the world's largest meat supplier.

The move comes on the same day a separate analysis revealed that American burgers are increasingly financing the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Nearly a quarter of Brazil’s beef exports to the US come from slaughterhouses located next to areas where illegal deforestation is rampant, according to Earthsight, a UK-based nonprofit that investigates links between environmental crime and consumption.

Raising cattle is the main driver of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon, along with opening roads. Between 1985 and 2023, an area slightly larger than France has been converted into pasture. Protecting the rainforest is a central focus of climate talks set to be held later this year in Brazil, though new government action and reports make clear how much of a challenge that will be.

Currently, 13 Amazon-based slaughterhouses have approval to export to the US. Five of them are located in Rondonia state, where lawmakers passed legislation that regularized hundreds of cattle ranchers who had converted a protected conservation area into pasture for more than 200,000 head of cattle.