"One ranch that used a compound in Agent Orange is linked to the world’s biggest meat packer, JBS, according to a new report."
"A destructive cocktail of herbicides, including a key compound in the lethal defoliant Agent Orange, is being used to chemically deforest huge areas of Brazil as ranchers there seek new, less detectable ways to clear forests for grazing cattle.
A report, published Tuesday by the environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth, with reporting from Reporter Brasil, says some of the deforestation is connected to the Brazilian beef companies, including JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, and that beef raised on the land has ended up in major grocery chains in Brazil.
João Gonçalves, a Brazil-based senior director with Mighty Earth, called the tactic “a devastating new war on nature, being waged by the beef industry.”
In 2022, Brazilian authorities got a tip that a prominent rancher in the state of Mato Grosso was using a mix of 25 herbicides, including 2,4-D—one of the major components in Agent Orange—to kill trees in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland. Earlier this year, the investigators fined the rancher, Claudecy Oliveira Lemes, the equivalent of about $520 million—the largest fine ever imposed in the region—for using the mix to destroy more than 80,000 hectares of forest. Investigators based their case against Lemes on soil samples and aerial videos, according to Reporter Brasil."
Georgina Gustin reports for Inside Climate News September 17, 2024.
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