The origin, supply chain, and deforestation risk of Brazil’s beef exports
Open accessAbstract
Significance: The trade in agricultural commodities is a mainstay of the globalized economy, though the complex nature of commodity supply chains makes it difficult to identify the origin of and impact embedded in products. We brought together detailed data on trade, agriculture, and logistics to produce a subnational map of the origin of Brazil’s exports of beef, offal, and live cattle. Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter, exporting one-fifth of its total production, and the sector is a major driver of deforestation. We traced cattle from 2,800 municipalities through to 152 importing countries, via thousands of companies handling their export and import. Our work gives an unprecedented insight into the origin of food and impacts embedded in global supply chains.
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Cattle ranching has long eluded sustainability initiatives such as private certification or public supply chain policies put in place to control its impacts.
“Ranching has long eluded sustainability initiatives such as private certification or public supply chain policies put in place to control its impacts (Alix-Garcia and Gibbs, 2017;Grabs et al., 2021;Zu Ermgassen et al., 2020).”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Zu Ermgassen et al., 2020
The Results and Discussion section (‘Coverage of Zero Deforestation Commitments’; page not provided) says commitments are only partially implemented and miss deforestation associated with indirect suppliers, supporting the claim that ranching can evade supply-chain controls. But the paper does not establish that ranching has long eluded private certification or public policies generally. Its Conclusion instead reports that cattle agreements reduced deforestation among direct suppliers and that government enforcement reduced deforestation. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBrazil's cattle sector is so spread-out and deeply involved in spearheading Amazonian deforestation that sourcing commitments made by meatpacking industries typically leave out indirect suppliers, who can sell locally or dodge traceability systems through counterfeit documentation-what is sometimes referred to as 'cattle laundering'.
“Furthermore, Brazil's cattle sector is so spread-out and deeply involved in spearheading Amazonian deforestation that sourcing commitments made by meatpacking industries typically leave out indirect suppliers, who can sell locally or dodge traceability systems through counterfeit documentationwhat is sometimes referred to as”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Zu Ermgassen et al., 2020
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredCattle ranching plays the key conversion function of penetrating the pre-frontier setting as a kind of primer and lying in a transitional zone between a non-state space and a formal economy.
“Arguably, that is precisely because it plays the key conversion function of penetrating the pre-frontier settingas a kind of primerand lying as it lies in a transitional zone between a non-state space and a formal economy (see also Zu Ermgassen et al., 2020).”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Zu Ermgassen et al., 2020
The paper’s Abstract describes cattle pasture replacing cleared land in the Amazon and Cerrado and cattle ranching shifting inland. That supports a role for ranching in land conversion, but neither the Abstract nor the passages on frontier expansion and pasture conversion describe it as a ‘primer’ penetrating a pre-frontier or as a transition between non-state space and the formal economy. The indexed copy provides section labels but no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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Research works printed but not linked: 13
- [2]Richards P., Pellegrina H., VanWey L., Spera S., Soybean development: The impact of a decade of agricultural change on urban and economic growth in Mato Grosso, Brazil. PLoS One 10, e0122510 (2015). 25919305 PMC4412665
- [3]Curtis P. G., Slay C. M., Harris N. L., Tyukavina A., Hansen M. C., Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Science 361, 1108– 1111 (2018). 30213911
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- [10]DeFries R., Herold M., Verchot L., Macedo M. N., Shimabukuro Y., Export-oriented deforestation in Mato Grosso: Harbinger or exception for other tropical forests? Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 368, 20120173 (2013). 23610176 PMC3638436
- [11]zu Ermgassen E. K. H. J.,, Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments: An assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector. 10.1088/1748-9326/ab6497. Accessed 7 January 2020. · DOI
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- [18]McManus C., Dynamics of cattle production in Brazil. PLoS One 11, e0147138 (2016). 26814797 PMC4729521
- [22]Rajão R., The rotten apples of Brazil’s agribusiness. Science 369, 246– 248 (2020). 32675358
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- [30]Vale P., The expansion of intensive beef farming to the Brazilian Amazon. Glob. Environ. Change 57, 101922 (2019).
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Protected areas still used to produce brazil’s cattle
West, T. A. P., Rausch, L., Munger, J., & Gibbs, H. K. (2022) · Conservation Letters · doi:10.1111/conl.12916 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Norris, D., Sabadini Carvalho, T., Guerrero, A. M., Sobral Escada, M. I., Alencar, A., Kimbrough, L., & Butler, R. A. (2022) · Tropical Conservation Science · doi:10.1177/19400829221132193 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Bastos Lima, M. G., & López, J. (2026) · World Development · doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107532
- Authors
- zu Ermgassen, E. K. H. J., Godar, J., Lathuillière, M. J., Löfgren, P., Gardner, T., Vasconcelos, A., & Meyfroidt, P.
- Affiliations
- Georges Lemaître Earth and Climate Research Centre, Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
- Stockholm Environment Institute (SE)
- Global Canopy (GB)
- Fund for Scientific Research (BE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 117
- Issue
- 50
- Pages
- 31770-31779
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC7749302
- OpenAlex
- W3049678592
- Cited by
- 170
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 8.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DIAL (Catholic University of Leuven) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (5594, 7703)
- Norwegian International Climate and Forests Initiative (18/3871)
- Global Environment Facility (EV04)
- Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas (2016-00351)
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS (2.5020.11)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
- Keywords
- beef exports, cattle supply chain, deforestation risk, slaughterhouses, meat trade, live cattle exports, supply chain transparency, agricultural trade
- MeSH terms
- Red Meat, Animals, Animal Husbandry, Brazil, Cattle, Commerce, Conservation of Natural Resources, Meat Products, Internationality
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