Hoping to replicate the success of a similar campaign in the state of Pará in 2009, Brazilian public prosecutors are suing slaughterhouses in three other Amazon states to the tune of R$557 million (US$280 million) for buying cattle raised on illegally cleared forestland. The lawsuits, which state and federal prosecutors filed on April 15 in Mato Grosso, Rondônia and Amazonas states, allege that 26 slaughterhouses violated a 1981 law aimed partly at getting companies to share responsibility for environmental damage done by their supply chains. Specifically, the 1981 law requires that where necessary for environmental protection, companies must establish a chain of custody to document the provenance of products that they and their suppliers buy and sell. The lawsuits also cite a 2008... [Log in to read more]