Protect the Amazon from deforestation!

Marfrig Global Foods buys cattle raised on land cleared by slashing and burning the Amazon rainforest — harming Indigenous people and forest defenders who have lived there for generations. Cattle production is the driving force behind 70% of Amazon destruction and half of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The Inter-American Development Bank, funded in part by the U.S. government, is preparing to give Marfrig a $43 million loan that would help it expand these disastrous practices. We need your help to cut off money driving Big Ag’s rainforest destruction.

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Dear IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone, U.S. Executive Director, IDB Invest and U.S. Department of Treasury:

I strongly urge you to oppose the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB Invest) proposed $43 million loan to Marfrig Global Foods. The goal of the IDB Invest loan is to support Marfrig’s Plan Verde+, which purports to deliver deforestation-free beef production by 2025 in the Amazon, and by 2030 in the Cerrado. However, we are concerned that this loan will greenwash a company linked to illegal deforestation in Brazil over the past five years — and whose current supply chain practices will continue to deforest precious ecosystems for many years to come. In fact, the IDB’s own assessment says that investment in Marfrig carries many environmental and social risks “mainly related to Marfrig’s supply chain, including deforestation, impacts on landscapes, ecosystems, and biodiversity, child/forced labor, and inadequate environmental, health and sustainability practices by the Company’s primary suppliers.”

Numerous reports link Marfrig’s supply chain to deforestation and human rights abuses in some of the most vulnerable and important ecosystems left on our planet — the Amazon and Cerrado regions of Brazil. Over the past two years, under the Bolsonaro regime, deforestation of the Amazon has increased 34% with cattle production the main driver of deforestation, accounting for half of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions.

More than a decade ago, Marfrig promised to develop tools to eliminate illegal deforestation and forced labor from its full supply chain. Yet, Marfrig still has no fundamental procedures in place to guarantee that cattle linked to environmental destruction and illegal activity are excluded. Given Marfrig’s weak auditing system (covering only 10% of its direct supply chain) and its unwillingness to effectively track its indirect supply chain, we are highly skeptical of its new promises under this Plan Verde IDB Invest loan. IDB’s support will simply give cover to allow this massive multinational corporation to secure even more loans to expand its operations.

Marfrig, already the 2nd largest beef producer in the world, is pushing to further consolidate its power, having spent $800 million to acquire a one-third share of a top poultry producer (BRF), and $969 million to acquire 81% of shares in the National Beef Packing Company. This hurts smallholder livelihoods and raises concerns about why a company of this scale is receiving public investment funds to implement the same sustainability commitments it has failed to meet for over a decade. This corporate giant has also been embroiled in a number of corruption schemes in Brazil.

Consideration of the Marfrig loan comes at a time when the Bolsonaro government is gutting environmental protections and pushing a disastrous legislative agenda that will decimate the rights of indigenous people and forest protections. In this context, It is irresponsible to finance Brazilian companies like Marfrig that could take advantage of these weakened legal protections.

If cattle were a nation, it would generate the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emissions in the world. As a sector, livestock production generates 32% of global methane emissions and 16.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Given the IDB’s commitment to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, we urge the IDB to oppose the Marfig loan and exclude all industrial livestock production from its lending portfolio in the future.

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.

Sincerely,
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