Greenpeace USA

JBS-Friboi, the world’s largest exporter of meat products and one of the largest companies in Brazil, announced today that it will no longer buy cattle raised in areas of the Amazon that were deforested after Sept. 23, 2009. They also announced that they will remove from its suppliers’ lists any farms in the region involved with slave labor or caught raising cattle on Indigenous Lands or Protected Areas.

On the heels of news that the Brazilian Amazon is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years and today’s study showing that the rainforest is disappearing twice as fast as previously thought, Greenpeace warned that Americans are a major culprit in the destruction of the Amazon.

Just days before UN climate talks begin in Poznan, Poland, the Brazilian government released new figures for Amazon deforestation between August 2007 and July 2008. After three years of decline, almost 3 million (2,957,356) acres were destroyed – a increase of 3.8% compared to the previous year. The new figures were announced today by the National Institute of Space Research (INPE).