- Earthsight analysed thousands of export records and cross-checked them against official databases to trace the origins of Brazilian beef consumed in the US. We found that nearly a quarter of this comes from high-risk slaughterhouses in the Amazon, and that US imports of Amazon beef nearly doubled in 2024, a trajectory that continued into 2025
- The state of Rondônia is ranked second for Amazon beef exports to the US. Earthsight investigators identified more than 34,500 tonnes of frozen and fresh beef shipped from the state to the US between January 2023 and June 2025 — enough to make at least 308 million quarter-pound burgers
- In April 2025, Rondônia passed a controversial law granting amnesty to hundreds of cattle ranchers who had illegally converted swathes of the Amazon to pasture. The law also annulled fines previously imposed on JBS and other meatpackers linked to these violations
- Thirteen slaughterhouses in the Brazilian Amazon are currently approved by US authorities to export beef. These facilities operate in areas where over 6 million hectares of forest are at risk of deforestation – equivalent to three times the size of New Jersey
- Brazil’s meatpacking giants – JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva – continue to supply the US despite repeated links to illegal deforestation, land grabbing, and other environmental crimes
- The US imported $1.1 billion worth of Brazilian beef and cowhides in 2022 alone. If passed, the US FOREST Act would ban imports of goods linked to illegal deforestation. But with the bill stalled in the Senate, US consumers remain at risk of unknowingly fueling Amazon destruction
High-risk Brazilian beef is reaching US dinner plates at unprecedented levels
Despite being the world’s largest beef producer, the United States continues to increase its reliance on Brazilian beef to meet domestic demand. The growth in Brazilian beef exports to the US is driven by a combination of shrinking cattle herds in the country and consistently high demand for beef.
In the first five months of 2025 alone, total Brazilian beef exports to the US reached over 175,000 tonnes, more than double compared to the same period in 2024. In April 2025, exports skyrocketed by a staggering 498 per cent compared to the same month in 2024 – a surge celebrated by Brazilian producers.
With at least 95 per cent of deforestation driven by commercial agriculture in Brazil likely to be illegal, Earthsight had already highlighted the growing links between the US beef market and deforestation risks in Brazil in 2021 and 2022. But this lucrative trade has, more than ever, become dangerously exposed to the risk of imported deforestation from Brazil.
In 2024, the environmental NGO Imazon’s Radar Verde report linked 11 US-approved facilities in the Amazon to deforestation risk spanning 6.6 million hectares of forest – an area three times the size of New Jersey. Today, there are 13 facilities approved for export, managed by six companies.
According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Brazilian beef exports to the US are projected to break a new record in 2025. Though the impact of new tariffs remains uncertain, volumes show no signs of slowing.
Analysing thousands of shipment records and cross-checking them against Brazilian government databases, Earthsight’s new analysis found that in 2023, around 31,171 tonnes of beef were exported from the Amazon to the US. This figure rose sharply in 2024, reaching 55,986 tonnes – an increase of almost 80 per cent. In the first half of 2025 alone, exports already exceeded 37,551 tonnes.
As more facilities in the Amazon receive sanitary approval to export to the US, the burden on American importers to ensure their supply chains are not tainted by deforestation or illegality increases.
From protected area to commercial ranchland: the case of Jaci-Paraná
In the state of Rondônia, home to over 18 million cattle or 7.6 per cent of Brazil’s national herd in 2023, deforestation for pasture is widespread. Between 1985 and 2022, the state lost 7.4 million hectares of forest to make way for cattle ranching – an area almost the size of South Carolina.
Earthsight’s analysis found that between January 2023 and June 2025, over 34,500 tonnes of frozen and fresh beef were exported from Rondônia to the US – that is enough to make at least 308 million quarter-pound burgers.
Five of the 13 Amazon-based slaughterhouses currently approved to export to the US are in Rondônia: two are owned by JBS, two by Minerva and one by Distriboi.
The state provides a stark illustration of how deforestation and illegality can thrive despite laws intended to prevent them. In western Rondônia near the state capital Porto Velho, the Jaci-Paraná Extractive Reserve, a conservation unit created in 1996, spans roughly 200,000 hectares (ha). Yet in 2023 less than three decades later, 76.3 per cent of its original forest cover had already been lost.
In 2023 there were 765 farms and 175,000 head of cattle within Jaci-Paraná – where commercial ranching is prohibited. The reserve is dominated by powerful ranchers, businessmen and politicians. Illegally raised cattle are often ‘laundered’ through legal farms outside the reserve. This practice frequently involves falsified transport permits and avoidance of Brazilian sanitary controls, creating serious health and safety risks. In 2019 alone, nearly 50,000 cattle were transferred out of Jaci-Paraná this way – masking their origins.
While enforcement has intensified in recent years, with fines and pending legal settlements totalling $280 million, this represents just a fraction of the $1 billion in damages the state government attributes to the invasions. Out of the more than 700 identified land grabbers, only a small number have been prosecuted.
Brazilian meatpackers supplying the US linked to illegal practices
In December 2023, Rondônia's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against JBS for purchasing 227 cattle raised illegally in the Jaci-Paraná Extractive Reserve. One of the JBS slaughterhouses named in the case has been USDA-approved for exports since 2011 and, according to shipment records, exported over 3,000 tonnes of beef between January 2023 and June 2025.
In another lawsuit, Distriboi along with a local meatpacker and three cattle ranchers were ordered to pay $764,000 in compensation for environmental damage. Distriboi, exporting under the name El Toro, has shipped almost 800 tonnes of beef to the United States since January 2025.
In April 2025, the state’s Legislative Assembly quietly passed, in a five-minute session with little debate, a controversial law that effectively absolves those responsible for illegal deforestation.
The legislation retroactively legalised pasture carved out of protected rainforest, dissolving the Jaci-Paraná conservation area in the process. It grants sweeping amnesties to ranchers who operated illegally within the reserve, voiding fines and other penalties without consequences. The measure also benefits the above-mentioned meatpackers that purchased cattle raised illegally in the reserve as their fines are likewise suspended. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, similar to what occurred in 2021, when the local government voted to change the boundaries of the same reserve.
Jaci-Paraná still ranks among Brazil’s ten most deforested conservation units, according to recent data. The problems, however, extend beyond the Reserve. Minerva, for instance, has been linked to cattle ranchers in southeastern Rondônia who have embargoes for unauthorised deforestation. This is the same facility that is currently authorised to export beef to the US.
What is an embargo?
An embargo is a punitive measure imposed by Ibama, Brazil’s environment agency, which suspends activities on properties where producers have illegally cleared vegetation, allowing the land to regenerate.
The fact that meatpackers from one of the Amazon’s most troubled regions enjoy unfettered access to the US market underscores the risk that American imports are entangled with environmental harm and leaves consumers unknowingly complicit in the destruction of the Amazon.
Without real action, corporate promises are meaningless
Brazil’s meat giants have long pledged to cut deforestation from their supply chains. Tracing cattle originating from both direct suppliers (ranches selling straight to slaughterhouses) and indirect suppliers (those selling cattle to farms which then supply meatpackers) is crucial, since environmental harms and laundering often happen at earlier stages of the supply chain.
When contacted by Earthsight, JBS pointed to investments in individual cattle traceability in Pará, but not in Rondônia or Mato Grosso, where its USDA-approved facilities are located. The company has a commitment to buy cattle only from direct suppliers registered on their platform from 2026, but offered no timeline for traceability back to indirect suppliers. JBS stated it is awaiting a court ruling on the lawsuit brought by Rondônia’s Attorney General. Marfrig said it is aiming for full traceability of all suppliers by December 2025 and stated that the suppliers named by Repórter Brasil comply with their socio-environmental criteria. Both JBS and Marfrig disputed Imazon’s report. Minerva told Earthsight it plans to implement a monitoring programme for indirect suppliers, but only by 2030. Distriboi did not respond to Earthsight’s request for comments and has made no public commitments.
Instead of holding companies linked to forest destruction accountable, the market seems to reward them – as seen in JBS’s June 2025 listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) which hands a firm with deep ties to deforestation and rights abuses fresh access to capital.
NGO Mighty Earth has submitted a legal notice to the NYSE arguing that the listing could violate US anti-money laundering laws, given JBS’s ongoing links to cattle raised on illegally deforested land. Without stricter oversight, Wall Street risks bankrolling Amazon deforestation – laundering the proceeds through American markets.
Full responses from all companies can be read here.
Delays to the FOREST Act are costing the Amazon
The longer Congress dithers, the greater the risk that America’s hamburgers will come with a side of Amazon destruction
To protect American consumers and halt its contribution to deforestation, the US must pass the Fostering Overseas Rule of Law and Environmentally Sound Trade (FOREST) Act, stalled in the Senate since November 2023.
The bill acknowledges the US as a major market for products linked to illegally deforested land, citing over $1.1 billion in Brazilian cowhides and beef imports in 2022. The FOREST Act would require full traceability to ranches of origin, covering direct and indirect suppliers, and extend restrictions similar to the Lacey Act – which already bans imports of illegal timber and wildlife – to forest-risk commodities, including beef and leather.
Rondônia’s recent law, allowing state authorities to retroactively legalise forest clearance, shows why the FOREST Act is urgently needed. While the Federal Prosecutor’s Office challenges the measure as unconstitutional in Brazil, the US can act in parallel: the FOREST Act would establish a vital safeguard, ensuring imports tied to illegal deforestation do not enter the American market unchecked.
The longer Congress dithers, the greater the risk that America’s hamburgers will come with a side of Amazon destruction. But regulation is only one part of the puzzle. Corporate actors must also clean up their supply chains and face real scrutiny.
