New Report Includes Current Companies Illegally Sourcing for Cargill
Minneapolis, MN—Today, Stand.earth, in partnership with AidEnvironment and 13 other international organizations, released a report detailing a policy framework needed for Cargill Inc. to reach its November 2023 commitment to a deforestation and conversion-free supply chain in Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina by 2025. In addition to a 10-step process, an accompanying portfolio contains details on companies linked to Cargill’s current supply chain that violate their already existing policies around deforestation and nature destruction.
Stand along with Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, International Rights Advocates, GT Infra, Mighty Earth, Eko, Global Witness, Friends of the Earth and other international organizations, including many from Brazil, are asking Cargill, as a show of good faith, to drop these companies from its supply chain.
“Through our research we’ve been able to identify ways for Cargill to start accomplishing the commitments they’ve set out to achieve in protecting some of South America’s most critical ecosystems, now,” Joana Faggin, Senior Researcher at AidEnvironment said. “It’s up to the Cargill-MacMillian family to put them into action.”
This report comes a month after Stand, in coordination with Reporter Brasil, released a report showcasing Cargill’s consistent and ongoing violations of environmental, Indigenous and human rights in Brazil, despite commitments claiming otherwise. With both reports, the Cargill-MacMillan family, who own Cargill, have a clear pathway to better understanding the destruction their company causes in South America, and the necessary steps to fulfilling the company’s public commitments.
“It’s time for the Cargill-MacMillan family to ensure that their company lives up to its commitments and leave a legacy of leadership instead of broken promises,” Mathew Jacobson, Burning Legacy Campaign Director at Stand.earth said. “They need to implement the steps outlined in the report, cancel contracts with companies that violate their existing policies, and withdraw their support for the construction of a freight railway through the Amazon Rainforest.”
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 has failed to act on. Providing a list of bad actors gives the family and the company the ability to act on their commitments by immediately removing them from their current supply chain.
“Cargill needs to update its supply chain policies based on the deforestation dynamics in areas like the Amazon where the expansion of agribusiness has been associated with illegal logging, land grabbing on public lands, and conflicts with traditional communities,” Brent Millikan, a member of the Executive Secretariat of GT Infra said. “Its current investments in transportation and port infrastructure contribute to socio-environmental conflicts.”
This report is being released pending a decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court on the construction of a 1,000-kilometer freight railway, the “Ferrogrão.” Publicly promoted by Cargill, the freight line would cut through the Amazon Rainforest impacting Indigenous lands and conservation units–despite Cargill’s recent commitment to a deforestation-free supply chain. The proposed project would transport grain from the Cerrado in Central Brazil to the Tapajos and Amazon rivers for export to Europe and China. The US trading giant Cargill, has called for the resumption of the project and said that anyone who opposes it is “irresponsible.” Indigenous peoples and other Amazonian communities, alongside environmental and human rights organizations, say this is inconsistent with Cargill’s current commitment and are demanding that Cargill withdraw support for the project. They’re also asking the Brazilian government to cancel the project in order to preserve the Amazon and Indigenous ways of life.
“Industrial agriculture is one of the biggest drivers of climate change,” Todd Paglia, Executive Director of Stand.earth said. “The Cargill-MacMillian family can steer the company toward implementation of their new deforestation-free commitment but the proof is in actions, not words. We look forward to seeing Cargill take the concrete steps we outlined to make their policy real.”
Cargill 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. The family has made billions of dollars from the destruction of vital ecosystems, the violation of Indigenous rights, and paying those who 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.
AidEnvironment is a not-for-profit sustainability research, strategy and implementation organization working to achieve transformative sector change. Its Deforestation-free Supply Chains team supports law charities, investors, civil society organizations (CSOs), and media outlets with evidence-based research on soy, beef, leather, palm oil, cocoa, pulp & paper, rubber, and coffee sectors. Our actionable research focuses on trade flows, value chains, and policy analysis supported by remote sensing. Visit us at https://aidenvironment.org/what-we-do/deforestation-solutions/ and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn @AidEnvironment.