2023-04-28 02:40:14
By Ana Mano
(Reuters) – The federal government is looking for ways to more efficiently perform the challenging task of tracing the origins of cattle raised for slaughter, Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Thursday.
It is crucial for buyers, such as slaughterhouses, to know the exact origin of cattle from Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of , as it is a crime to raise cattle in areas of illegally cleared forest.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promised to take strict measures against environmental crimes, and verification of the origin of cattle is essential to guarantee that the animals do not come from deforested areas of the Amazon or the Cerrado.
“The format and model are open for discussion,” Favaro told reporters at a beef industry event, referring to proposals to verify the origin of cattle.
“It has to be step by step,” he said, citing obstacles such as lack of internet connectivity in certain remote areas where cattle are raised. Fávaro pointed out that one cannot demand from producers something for which they are not prepared.
The minister said that any system that is not verifiable lacks credibility and would amount to “greenwashing” (a term in English to refer to misleading sustainable practices), adding that this would not help Brazil to open new markets for its meat.
The vice-president of the Republic, Geraldo Alckmin, said at the same event that land grabbers, and not farmers, are to blame for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
(Reporting by Ana Mano)
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