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São Paulo, BrazilA new report written by an investigative journalism group, Reporter Brasil, in partnership with Stand.earth reveals that the company Cargill Inc., is consistently violating environmental, Indigenous and human rights despite commitments claiming otherwise. 

The report dives into Cargill’s current policies within the environmental space as it relates to soy farming and sourcing, including farming violations on Indigenous and protected lands. It also calls attention to human rights issues such as the lack of safety protocols and standards for the workers on plantations they source from, and how their increased infrastructure of port systems in Brazil is dangerously disrupting Indigenous communities. The research highlights the many ways in which Cargill is failing to meet its commitments and is actively violating various environmental and human rights in Brazil.

After years of investigating Cargill, Repórter Brasil reveals in this new publication how the company’s operations in the country are linked to deforestation, slave labor and other human and environmental rights violations,” Marcel Gomes, Executive Secretary at Reporter Brasil said. “Despite public commitments and the pacts signed by Cargill, it’s clear that the company’s due diligence mechanisms do not work and must be reviewed.” 

Recently, the company committed to a deforestation-free supply chain in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay by 2025. Unfortunately, this is not the first commitment of its kind that Cargill has made. In fact, Cargill has made numerous commitments over the years around deforestation and human rights that it’s failed to act on. 

This report is being released to the public the day after protests in Brazil were led by Indigenous leaders. The communities were voicing their concern ahead of a decision that will be made by Brazil’s Supreme Court for a 1,000-kilometer freight railway that will cut through the heart of the Amazon Rainforest impacting Indigenous lands and conservation units. The proposed project, called Ferrogrão, would transport grain from the Cerrado in Central Brazil for export to Europe and China. US trading giant Cargill has called for the resumption of the project and said that anyone who opposes it is “irresponsible.” Indigenous and environmental organizations are calling this inconsistent with Cargill’s commitment to a deforestation-free supply chain and are calling on Cargill to withdraw support for the project to preserve the Amazon and Indigenous ways of life. 

“Cargill is notorious for making and breaking environmental and human rights commitments,” said Mathew Jacobson, Cargill Campaign Director at Stand.earth. “We hope that by shedding light on Cargill’s behavior, the Cargill-MacMillian family will step in and eliminate human rights abuses and the destruction of nature from their company’s supply chain.”

Cargill, Inc is the United States’s largest private company, and the world’s largest agribusiness company. Eighty-eight percent of the company is owned by the Cargill MacMillian family–approximately 20 people, broken down into two branches, the Cargills and the MacMillans. They are the fourth richest family in America, with more billionaires than any other family on Earth. As the report exhibits, the family has made billions of dollars destroying vital ecosystems, disrupting Indigenous rights, and paying those that work on their plantations close to nothing.

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Stand.earth (formerly ForestEthics) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with offices in Canada and the United States that is known for its groundbreaking research and successful corporate and citizen engagement campaigns to create new policies and industry standards in protecting forests, advocating the rights of Indigenous peoples, and protecting the climate. Visit us at www.stand.earth and follow us on Twitter @standearth.

 

Repórter Brasil is a nonprofit organization with offices in Sao Paulo and correspondent journalists based in several Brazilian cities whose internationally recognized work on investigative journalism, supply chain research and educational methodologies have been influencing public authorities and business leaders for a more sustainable production model. Visit us at www.reporterbrasil.org.br