Thread by @business

The cattle industry and rainforest destruction are inextricably intertwined. While Brazilian beef makes its way to plates around the world, the Amazon is paying the price.

Read The Big Take here ⬇️
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The world’s biggest beef producer, JBS, markets itself as a friend of the environment and says it’s committed to ridding its supply chain of animals born or raised on deforested land in the Amazon trib.al/5QAmrf9

But the beef industry’s aggressive expansion is overwhelmingly responsible for the rainforest’s destruction, and JBS has bought more cattle coming out of the biome than any other company trib.al/5QAmrf9

JBS’s supply chain is entrenched in a part of the Amazon that’s been largely cut down to make way for cattle. Alerts from Brazil’s national space research agency show a cumulative 8.2 million hectares of clear-cutting since 2009 trib.al/5QAmrf9

When JBS says it sets the highest standards for its suppliers, it’s based on a greenwashed version of an animal’s origin and a legal system so full of loopholes that prosecutors, environmentalists, and even the ranchers themselves consider it a farce trib.al/5QAmrf9

A Bloomberg analysis of more than 1.5 million deliveries and mapping files shows just how far the Brazilian beef giant’s supply chain reaches into the world’s largest rainforest trib.al/5QAmrf9

The Amazon is nearing a tipping point as deforestation is at a 15-year high—and parts of it now dump more carbon dioxide into the air than it can absorb.

Read the full @business investigation in collaboration with @Rainforest_RIN & @pulitzercenter ➡️
trib.al/5QAmrf9