The race for traceability and the JBS Fund for the Amazon
An inside look at the Brazilian efforts to improve the cattle supply chain
By Mariana Grilli
In Brazil, in the so-called ‘Legal Amazon,’ which includes nine states, cattle ranching is still held responsible as the main vector of deforestation. On the one hand, there are some environmentalists and international buyers who point to cattle ranching as the reason for tree felling. On the other hand, there are small-scale cattle ranchers without technical assistance to find more sustainable ways to maintain activity and income generation.
To improve the situation, it requires dialogue, public policy, the fight against illegality and the promotion of sustainable actions. Stopping raising cattle in this region of the Amazon is out of the question. Cattle ranching is an alternative for personal consumption and means quick money with the sale of animals, in case the financial situation tightens in a region with low infrastructure and lack of employment. This context dates back to the 1970s, when public lands were granted in the Midwest and North of Brazil.
In the past, unproductive land was abandoned. Today it is possible to increase the nutritional quality of the pasture and remain in the same place without further deforestation. For this, science and technology are needed to reach rural communities, and also traceability is more requested to prove all the steps of production.
To overcome the challenges of cattle ranching in more than 5,000 Brazilian municipalities where the activity exists, mechanisms such as the Meat Moratorium and the Brazilian Table of Sustainable Livestock were created.
Alaion Rosa, a cattle farmer in the municipality of Novo Repartimento, in Pará, another state that forms part of the Legal Amazon, explains that the family has been in the region for decades and does not intend to abandon the place, so it is important to be part of programs that promote sustainability so that your own business remains active and generating income, without harming the environment. “I’m not going to open any more area or leave here. So we need to update ourselves with techniques, have access to credit, so that I can also leave a legacy for my children”, he said. Rosa receives technical assistance from the NGO Solidaridad, which has a contribution of 25 million reais (around $5 million) from the JBS Fund for the Amazon.
Countdown to traceabilityIn the case of JBS, the largest producer of animal protein in the world, efforts to promote sustainable livestock farming are concentrated in the JBS Fund for the Amazon, a non-profit organization in which the meatpacking company is the main investor.
"We understand that high-productivity and low-carbon livestock farming is an ally of small producers and can be carried out by them, as long as there is consistent support in overcoming the main barriers in this process. Considering the transformations in market demands, if nothing is done, they may be pushed to the margins of the formal sector, further aggravating their socioeconomic vulnerability," said Andrea Azevedo, executive director of the JBS Fund for the Amazon.
Exporting beef, soybeans and other items whose production does not generate deforestation in the Amazon and other biomes is one of the requirements of trade agreements in negotiations by Brazil, such as the one with the European Union. In the case of beef cattle, exports expose slaughterhouses to the risk of embargoes, for health and environmental reasons. As an example of this complexity, at the end of 2023, after investing almost $60 million over the last four years to pursue a deforestation-free production chain, Marfrig announced its exit from the Amazon, as conflicts related to livestock suppliers pose a risk from an environmental point of view.
To avoid risks related to deforestation, the fund has launched, in November 2023, a program to support small-scale cattle ranchers with a budget of $2 million allocated to it. The plan is to invest, over 10 years, $20 million to assist those people interested in the transition, recovering degraded pasture and serving more than 3,500 families located in the Legal Amazon. This model program operated in partnership with the Solidaridad Foundation, because its knowledge is the open door to the technical assistance into the forest reality.
Paulo Lima, manager of the livestock programs at Solidaridad, explains that in extensive cattle farming it is possible to raise two head of cattle per hectare with an average weight gain of 250 grams per day per animal. In the intensive model, eight heads per hectare are managed, at an increment of 600 grams every 24 hours. The example he cited is based on Rosa's rural property.
Another one of these attempts to integrate small livestock farmers into a legal production chain is in the municipality of Lábreas, in the south of the state Amazonas – in the Amazon biome region. This is the 10th largest in the country and also one of the least populated, with less than one inhabitant per square kilometer. In 2022, the locality led deforestation in Brazil, with 62.4 thousand hectares, an average of 171 ha per day.
Brazilian efforts to improve cattle chainFor those outside Brazil, it is often difficult to understand the complexity of the production chain. In some regions, there is a lack of electricity, an absence of bank agents to take out credit, part of the population has literacy problems and the legislation itself is difficult to comply with in the middle of the forest, with many logistical difficulties.
Livestock farming, ranchers, NGOs and industry have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the animal lives alongside the forest, in an inclusive and not exclusive way. Thus, the reality in the Amazon is to obtain consortiums of cattle with the forest, the cultivation of cocoa, cassava, in addition to native species that make up the Amazon's biodiversity.
On March 19, the Brazilian Table on Sustainable Livestock and the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture officially delivered the proposal for a national and individual public policy for bovine traceability to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), together with associates and partners of both entities. According to the entity, the proposal, built in 2023 with broad sector alignment, aims to meet the demands of the market and society for beef produced responsibly and with less environmental impact.The objective is to unite public and private sectors, as well as class entities, in order to think of viable ways to guarantee the production processes of breeding, rearing, fattening and slaughtering, from small cattle ranchers to slaughterhouses. Just to have an idea, achieving zero deforestation in the Amazon could save approximately 11,500 square kilometers of the forest, according to Tropical Forest Alliance, a World Economic Forum initiative. To achieve this reality, technology, credit policies and assistance are crucial for ranchers.
Grilli is a freelance agricultural journalist from Brazil. Cover photo courtesy of Grilli.
