SECRET INGREDIENT

PRESS RELEASE

26th September 2024

McDonald’s and some of Europe’s leading supermarkets linked to illegal deforestation, land grabbing and violence in the Brazilian Cerrado

• Chicken sold by fast-food chain McDonald’s and major European supermarkets Carrefour, Intermarché, Edeka and Albert Heijn has been linked to the loss of 23,000 hectares of Cerrado vegetation since January 2021 - an area almost the size of Frankfurt
• Soy used in animal feed in Europe has been produced by agribusinesses linked to deforestation, land grabbing, corruption and violence against traditional communities
• Two of these large agribusinesses have farms certified by the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). In response to Earthsight’s findings, RTRS has suspended their certificates 
• The EU must resist intensified industry lobbying to delay and weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and enforce the regulation fully and on time. Europe must halve its complicity in forest loss and illegalities overseas 

Read this Press release in French, Dutch, German and Portuguese.

Earthsight videos, photos and graphics are available here. 

UK investigative NGO Earthsight analysed satellite images, court rulings and shipment records to trace some of the 1.4 million tonnes of soy exported to the EU from Brazil’s Bahia state by giant commodity traders Bunge and Cargill between 2021 and 2024 to illegal deforestation, land grabbing, violence against traditional communities and corruption. 

After being exported from Bahia by Bunge and Cargill, part of this soy tied to illegalities and destruction arrives in the Netherlands and is processed into animal feed. Millions of chickens fed with this feed are slaughtered by Plukon, Europe’s fourth-largest poultry producer, which supplies thousands of stores across Europe. Earthsight identified Plukon chicken products in Carrefour and Intermarché in France, Albert Heijn in the Netherlands and Edeka stores in Germany. Plukon also supplies McDonald’s in Europe. The amount of soy exported by Bunge alone from Bahia’s Cerrado to the EU is enough to produce 428 million chicken legs per year. 

The industrial-scale farms producing the tainted soy at the centre of Earthsight’s investigation belong to some of Brazil’s biggest soy producers. Combined, they have been fined more than €5 million for deforestation and environmental violations in the Cerrado wilderness, and have a long record of conflicts with traditional communities. This includes links to some of the worst cases of land grabbing in Brazil, representing thousands of hectares of stolen land that have warranted legal action from the state of Bahia against the agribusinesses involved. One of the producers is also implicated in one of Brazil’s largest corruption scandals, in which judges, lawyers and agribusinesses conspired to secure favourable court rulings to legitimise approximately 800,000ha of land grabs. 

The Cerrado, a vast region of dramatic plateaus and lush valleys (ES footage), covers a quarter of Brazil and is home to 5 per cent of all the world’s species, including the giant anteater and giant armadillo. Over half the biome has been cleared for large-scale agriculture in recent decades. The carbon emissions resulting from this destruction (ES footage) are equivalent to those of an additional 50 million cars on the road each year. Hundreds of species - including giant armadillos, tapirs, maned wolves, and jaguars – now face extinction due to habitat loss. 

The situation is getting worse – deforestation in the Cerrado rose by 43 per cent last year. Almost all clearance is illegal, carried out by a few mega-estates that represent just 1 per cent of all rural properties. Earthsight can now reveal that over 23,000 hectares of deforestation of native vegetation have been identified on farms owned by two soy producers between January 2021 and May 2024 –  an area almost the size of Frankfurt. Farms owned by soy producers who have long-standing business relationships with Cargill and Bunge. 

A ruinous mix of corruption, greed, violence (ES footage) and impunity has led to the blatant theft of public lands and dispossession of local communities (ES footage); local campaigners in Bahia told Earthsight it is rare for large-scale farms not to grab land. People who have lived in harmony with the Cerrado for generations are forced off the areas they have traditionally occupied and blocked from subsistence activities. They are subjected to surveillance, intimidation and cattle theft by agribusiness-linked gunmen, as well as shootings and other violent attacks on their leaders. 

Two of the soy producers identified by Earthsight are certified by the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). Earthsight’s investigation reveals how RTRS’s standard and certification processes have allowed these agribusinesses linked to deforestation and rights violations in the Cerrado to appear ethical and sustainable. In response to Earthsight’s findings, RTRS has suspended the two companies’ certificates pending an investigation.  

Earthsight Deputy Director Rubens Carvalho said: “Large commodity traders, food manufacturers and retailers need to stop making European consumers complicit in the destruction of the Cerrado. They must ensure that soy linked to deforestation and communities’ rights violations does not enter their supply chains. Sadly, despite years of pledges and commitments, they have been failing in this task. EU policymakers have to stand firm and make sure the EU Deforestation Regulation is fully enforced from the end of this year." 

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) marks a turning point in addressing the impacts of European consumption. It requires that products placed on the EU market be deforestation-free and produced in compliance with relevant producer country laws, such as those related to corruption and human rights abuses. Earthsight’s analysis shows how soy recently imported to the EU by Bunge and Cargill is exposed to forest loss that took place after the EUDR’s deforestation cut-off date of December 2020, as well as other illegalities in the Brazilian Cerrado, making these imports non-compliant with the upcoming regulation. 

But in the run-up to the EUDR taking effect in December 2024, industry sectors with some of the largest deforestation footprints in the world and egregious track records of human rights violations are seeking to delay and weaken the law. Government legislation in wealthy consumer countries is essential. There is no room for delay or inaction. The EUDR, enforced on time and effectively, is key to ensuring that European consumption stops driving deforestation and human rights abuses overseas, Earthsight said.

ENDS

Notes to editors 

The report, Secret Ingredient, will be available in English here at 00:01 CET on 26 September 2024. The Executive Summary is available here in Dutch, French, German and Portuguese. 

Video, photographs and graphics are available here. 

Companies’ responses in full are available here. 

Earthsight is a London-based non-profit committed to exposing environmental and social crime and their links to global consumption. 

Contacts

Earthsight Deputy Director Rubens Carvalho (EN, PT, ES)

Earthsight Team Lead for Latin America, Rafael Pieroni (EN, PT, ES)

Earthsight Researcher for Latin America, Lara Shirra White (EN)

Earthsight’s funding comes from charitable foundations and government programmes. We are an independent, non-partisan organisation and our work is not influenced by government or private sector interests.