Cattle Concerns Make the Right Moo-ve on Deforestation

Critical Amazonian ecosystems have been handed a well-deserved reprieve this week through industry deciding that there are better ways to do business.

In a move that followed heavy lobbying by Greenpeace, four of the world’s largest beef and cattle industry concerns have agrees to halt purchases of meat produced in former Brazilian rain forest as reported by the New York Times.

Currently the world’s leading exporter of beef and in possession of the world’s largest herd of cattle, Brazil’s prominence in the realm of meat has demonstrably come at the expense of its forest ecosystems that have given way to encroachment and to economic pressures.

But this local shift has global consequence: climate scientists estimate that approximately 20 percent of the annual greenhouse gas load stems from the loss of tropical forests, taking along with them their capacity to store carbon.

The agreement forged between the members of the cattle industry includes provisions for supply chain monitoring and tracking, registration of farms and suppliers, and safeguards against the purchase of cattle produced in lands under indigenous hands or under existing environmental protection, as well as from suppliers who use illegal labor practices.

Photo courtesy of Valerio Pillar, via Flickr