By André Schröder
In December 2021, six major European supermarket chains decided to halt the sale of Brazilian beef giant JBS products indefinitely. The boycott was announced after a report by the nonprofit media outlet Repórter Brasil, in partnership with the global NGO Mighty Earth, which directly linked JBS goods sold in Europe to deforestation in Brazil’s most threatened ecosystems, including the Amazon Rainforest.
The journalistic investigation revealed that the meatpacking company had bought cattle raised in illegally deforested areas by indirect suppliers in a scheme known as “cattle laundering.” On April 29, Marcel Gomes, the executive secretary at Repórter Brasil, won the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for leading this investigative effort.
“It’s a pleasure to receive the award for a journalistic effort and to see this field of knowledge valued,” Gomes told Mongabay by phone. “This investigative work required a lot of planning and dedication, years of defining strategies and implementation.”
Other five Goldman awards were announced on Apr. 29: Alok Shukla from India, Andrea Vidaurre from the U.S., Murrawah Maroochy Johnson from Australia, Teresa Vicente from Spain, and Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu from South Africa.
Gomes’ award-winning work began in 2017, with the construction of its own platform to cross-reference large masses of data on the beef chain — environmental fines, embargoes, slave labor and inter-ranch cattle transport guides provided by public agencies under Brazil’s transparency law. Gomes said that Repórter Brasil’s tool helps connect Brazil’s ranching to social and environmental issues.
“We built a platform full of information from scratch to speed up data cross-checking and production chain mapping. Now, this tool is helping organizations in Brazil and worldwide, including other journalism groups that are producing investigative reports faster,” the 2024 Goldman winner said.
Marcel Gomes and colleagues at the Repórter Brasil office. Image courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
With the platform up and running, Gomes saw that it was possible to expose the links between beef exported by major Brazilian meatpackers, especially JBS, and the deforestation of native forests. In partnership with Mighty Earth, Repórter Brasil conducted a complex and innovative investigation to trace the origin of Brazilian meat sold in European supermarkets.
In 2020, Gomes recruited freelance researchers in European countries. They visited supermarkets searching for specific meat products supplied by JBS, collecting data from the packaging based on a methodology created by Repórter Brasil to feed the investigation spreadsheets. Based on the collected data, it was possible to trace JBS beef along the chain — from the meatpacking plant to the slaughterhouse and back to the farm where the suppliers allegedly raised the cattle.
Then, the investigation was on target. If the identified ranch had previously been sanctioned for deforestation, the Repórter Brasil team called on its robust network of Indigenous communities, local NGOs and farmers to obtain more information. The work also relied on satellite mapping to measure deforestation near the farms suspected of cattle laundering.
“The Goldman Environmental Prize for Marcel Gomes is a milestone in strengthening public interest journalism in Brazil,” Maia Fortes, executive director at Ajor, a digital journalism association representing 90 media organizations, told Mongabay by phone. “Repórter Brasil stands out for its innovative journalism covering human rights and socioenvironmental violations, generating concrete impacts and pressuring companies and governments to adopt more responsible practices.”
“The awarding of the Goldman Prize to Marcel Gomes, more than just recognition of Repórter Brasil’s work, is a breath of fresh air for journalism,” Claudio Angelo, international policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory, told Mongabay. “It is proof that, in an age of algorithms, post-truth, click-baiting and scrapped newsrooms, the journalist’s essential function to protect the public interest — and no area embodies this more than the environment — watch over private interests and tell the truth to power is still standing.”
Repórter Brasil revealed that JBS, the Brazilian beef giant, had bought cattle raised in illegally deforested areas by indirect suppliers.Image courtesy of JBS.
All eyes on JBS
In addition to boosting the JBS beef boycott in supermarkets from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the U.K., Repórter Brasil’s investigation increased pressure for action against illegal livestock, especially around effective traceability systems. Brazil’s beef export sector is the largest in the world, accounting for 20% of global transactions. Brazil has 215 million head of cattle, more than two-thirds of it raised in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, where cattle farming is the biggest driver of deforestation.
Suspicion over JBS’s operations increased after another investigation into cattle laundering, also coordinated by Gomes, led the beef company to publicly admit that it had purchased almost 9,000 cattle raised on illegally deforested Brazilian lands from 2018-22.
“Repórter Brasil’s work has helped pressure companies and public authorities in Brazil and abroad to scrutinize the operations of JBS and other big companies,” Gomes said. “The Brazilian administration realized the need to trace the beef chain and opened a dialogue to build a public and transparent traceability system, aimed above all at indirect suppliers.”
Goldman’s award-winning campaign is also part of a body of corruption and deforestation evidence often cited by environmental groups opposed to a bid by JBS for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2023, several nonprofit organizations, including Mighty Earth, submitted letters to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asking for the Brazilian meatpacking company’s initial public offering to be investigated and rejected. According to conservationists, more investment could lead to an explosive expansion of the JBS operations, leading to more deforestation in Brazil.
In February 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against JBS USA Food Company and JBS USA Food Company Holdings for misrepresenting plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The lawsuit cites numerous instances in which the company’s claims to the public don’t match reality, including emission calculations that exclude deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.
Aerial view showing cattle confinement in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the ecosystems affected by illegal deforestation. Image courtesy of Fernando Martinho/Goldman Environmental Prize.
Strengthened journalism
At 45, Marcel Gomes leads the investigative and research teams of Repórter Brasil, a nonprofit outlet that has monitored, identified and denounced human rights violations, slave labor and environmental issues linked to important supply chains for more than two decades. According to him, Repórter Brasil has extended the investigation method of Brazilian beef to other chains, such as coffee, soy and clothing.
“Investigative journalism faces many difficulties. With newsrooms getting smaller and smaller, few journalists have the luxury of time to spend on long investigations,” Gomes said. “We need to strengthen investigative journalism organizations, promote partnerships between different outlets in search of new stories and improve access to public data to base investigations.”
Fortes, from Ajor, agreed. “This award not only encourages the winners’ work but also encourages public discussion about the type of journalism that Brazilian society wants to strengthen.”
Founded 35 years ago, the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” is the world’s leading award honoring environmental activists. Marcel Gomes is the fifth Brazilian winner. Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva received the award in 1996. Last year, Goldman awarded Alessandra Korap Munduruku for her fight against illegal mining.
Banner image: Goldman Prize winner from Brazil Marcel Gomes. Image courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
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This article was originally published on Mongabay
