Brazilian ranchers on slavery Dirty List resell cattle via intermediaries, losing 1–14% of revenue
An analysis of millions of cattle transactions shows listed employers cut direct sales to signatory slaughterhouses but kept selling through intermediaries, so downstream bans had a limited effect.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign analysed millions of cattle transactions in Brazil. They found that ranchers added to the national "Dirty List", a public registry of employers found to have used modern slavery, largely avoided the financial consequences. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Listed ranchers reduced direct sales to slaughterhouses that had signed sustainable supply chain commitments, but laundered cattle through compliant intermediaries or sold to nonsignatory slaughterhouses doi.org
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdoi.orgOpen source ↗.
The Dirty List names employers found to have violated anti-slavery laws. According to the university release, a group of companies, including the three largest meatpackers in the Amazon, signed agreements not to buy cattle directly from listed ranchers.
How the cattle kept moving
The agreements prohibit only direct purchases. Listed ranchers therefore shifted sales to other ranchers, many of whom went on to supply the same slaughterhouses, the authors report doi.org
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdoi.orgOpen source ↗. According to the study, the resulting revenue decline was roughly 1% to 14%. The authors say this weakened the financial cost of listing and likely allowed beef and leather linked to modern slave labor to enter international supply chains
doi.org
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdoi.orgOpen source ↗. They also report that many of these slaughterhouses sold beef and leather into international chains around the time they bought, directly or indirectly, from listed ranchers.
The data also show a shift in the age of animals sold. While on the list, ranchers sold more animals close to slaughter age and did not change sales of younger animals. Removal from the list takes two years of good behavior. The researchers consider it likely that ranchers hold younger animals until they regain access to the full pool of buyers.
Upstream monitoring
Slavery cannot be measured directly at this scale, so the team estimated how employers responded to sanctions. The authors conclude that downstream enforcement has limits and that suppliers further upstream need monitoring doi.org
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdoi.orgOpen source ↗. Lead author Tara Mittelberg called for traceability that follows cattle through the entire production system, including ranches that never sell directly to a slaughterhouse.
Study co-author Holly Gibbs said her group developed a tool called Visipec with partners to help companies assess indirect suppliers. She added that efforts in Brazil to establish animal-level traceability could make such self-monitoring more accurate.
