According to the US activist group Mighty Earth, some European supermarket chains are removing Brazilian beef goods linked to the degradation of the Amazon rainforest and tropical wetland.
Carrefour Belgium has pledged to removing corned beef, beef jerky, and fresh prime cuts suspected of coming from cattle bred in the Amazon and Pantanal tropical wetlands from its stores.
A Mighty Earth investigation, conducted in collaboration with Reporter Brasil, a Brazilian non-government organization created by journalists, revealed linkages between deforestation and the Sao Paulo manufacturing units of Brazilian meat processing giants JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva.
Activists have long criticized the global meat industry’s environmental footprint, blaming it for two-thirds of world biodiversity loss.
It also accuses meat processing companies of failing to follow through on promises to end deforestation in their supply networks.
Carrefour announced the withdrawal of Jack Link’s brand beef jerky, following the lead of Belgian grocer Delhaize, while Auchan of France announced the removal of beef jerky items linked to JBS.
“We look at the origin of the items that we would have in other countries if we found any,” Carrefour’s director of corporate social responsibility Agathe Grossmith told AFP.
Smoke rises from a burning area of Amazon rainforest reserve, south of Novo Progresso in Para state, on August 16, 2020.
Other retailers, like Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, Lidl and Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom, and Princes in the United States, are adopting similar steps, according to Mighty Earth.
Sainsbury’s, which sources the majority of its beef products from the United Kingdom and Ireland, told AFP that the business was taking steps to guarantee corned beef products were sourced outside of Brazil.
“We have now taken the decision to gradually eliminate Brazilian beef and are seeking replacements from other countries of origin,” an Albert Heijn representative told AFP.
