Study - Only Four Of World's 15 Biggest Grocery/Food Brands Doing Anything To Cut Beef Deforestation

[hatrack]

Despite pledges of reform, the world’s leading supermarket and fast-food companies are doing little to address the environmental and human rights abuses associated with beef production. Their policies continue to contribute to the destruction of the Amazon and other threatened ecosystems, according to a scorecard from the environmental nonprofit Mighty Earth.

The group said that despite beef production being the leading cause of global deforestation, only four companies — Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour, and McDonalds — are taking steps to stop purchasing beef from destructive suppliers. The remaining 11 food companies surveyed, including U.S.-based Costco, are not taking the necessary steps to stop procuring beef from suppliers with a poor record of sourcing cattle from deforested areas in the Amazon and elsewhere, Mighty Earth said.

“A small handful of global beef suppliers are leading the destruction of our global forests and selling meat to food companies around the world,” said Lucia von Resner, senior campaign director for Mighty Earth. “Supermarkets and fast-food companies are the gatekeepers in the supply chain that can either enforce sustainability standards or continue to allow meat suppliers to sell beef from deforested land to unwitting customers.”

Mighty Earth evaluated the 15 companies on three criteria: policy commitment, monitoring and verification, and public reporting on progress. The group said that U.K.-based Tesco and Marks & Spencer, along with French-based Carrefour and U.S.-based McDonalds, have begun to implement commitments not to source beef from deforested land. Tesco and Marks & Spencer were the only companies that had cut off contracts with non-compliant suppliers and that were prioritizing beef sourcing from low-risk suppliers.

The Mighty Earth report also found that most company efforts to stop ranching-related forest destruction are concentrated in the Amazon and that little was being done to stop such destruction in Brazil’s Pantanal and Cerrado, as well as in regions of Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia.

EDIT

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/most-global-food-brands-continue-to-have-a-dismal-record-on-beef-and-deforestation

[multigraincracker]

1. CAFO dairy farms are terrible on the environment.

Back when farmers were typically milking 40 cows there was less damage.