Takeaways from AP's reporting on an American beef trader's links to Amazon deforestation
Data analysis by The Associated Press and the Rainforest Investigations Network, a nonprofit reporting consortium, found that a little-known American meat trading company in Utah is feeding China’s growing appetite for Brazilian beef, a commodity that’...
WASHINGTON — Data analysis by The Associated Press and the Rainforest Investigations Network, a nonprofit reporting consortium, found that a little-known American meat trading company in Utah is feeding China’s growing appetite for Brazilian beef, a commodity that’s driving the deforestation of the Amazon.
The world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a critical role in the global climate by absorbing carbon emissions.
As Chinese beef imports have surged sixfold in the last decade, according to U.N. Comtrade data, Salt Lake City-based Parker-Migliorini International, known as PMI Foods, has shipped more than $1.7 billion dollars in Brazilian beef, almost all of that to China. PMI’s biggest supplier of Brazilian beef is meat processing giant JBS SA, which has been cited repeatedly by Brazilian federal prosecutors for buying cattle raised on deforested land.
PMI’s role as middleman shipping meat across borders shows how the growing international trade in beef can drive deforestation.
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This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.
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PMI Foods is a meat trading company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It does not raise or process meat, but instead buys meat from companies in one country and sells it in other countries.
PMI Foods is now a $3 billion global enterprise that buys and sells more than 1.6 billion pounds (725.7 million kilograms) of beef, pork, chicken, seafood and eggs each year.
As a major buyer and shipper of
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