Brazilian federal prosecutors and a beef exporters’ association last month signed an unprecedented agreement under which the association pledged to help curb deforestation, especially in the Amazon, by supplying its slaughterhouse members with the digital tools needed to guarantee they are buying cattle raised on legally cleared pastureland. The Association of Beef Export Industries (Abiec), the agreement’s cosigner, comprises 26 slaughterhouse operators, 10 of them based in the Amazon, that account for 70% of the beef processed nationwide and 95% of the beef exported from Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter. The agreement’s other cosigners were federal prosecutors in the seven states where beef is a major commodity. “This should reduce the environmental impact of illegal land clearing to graze cattle,” says Abiec Executive Director... [Log in to read more]