Cases / Agriculture, livestock and food · Brazil · 2021–2025
Grain traders report 93–99% of Cerrado soy as deforestation-free
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
The traders' own forum declared 93–99% of 2023/24 Cerrado soy deforestation-free, while Mighty Earth's monitoring lists potentially linked losses for Bunge and Cargill. The Cerrado savanna is the nature at stake, and the sources reviewed do not give the period covered by the loss figures.
What?
Grain traders declared 93–99% of 2023/24 Cerrado soy deforestation-free in their own forum, while monitoring lists potentially linked losses. WBCSD (Soft Commodities Forum)
Where?
Cerrado biome, Brazil. Mighty Earth
When?
2023/24 soy season. WBCSD (Soft Commodities Forum)
Who?
Gained
None on recordLost
- Cerrado habitat — monitoring lists potentially linked losses of 224,181 ha (Bunge) and 133,256 ha (Cargill) Mighty Earth
Harmed
None on recordWhy?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
The deforestation-free figures are self-declared by the traders; the loss figures come from a separate monitoring source. WBCSD (Soft Commodities Forum)
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
The traders' own forum declared 93–99% of 2023/24 Cerrado soy as deforestation-free, according to the Soft Commodities Forum 2025 report.
Mighty Earth's monitoring data lists potentially linked losses of 224,181 hectares for Bunge and 133,256 hectares for Cargill.
Trade associations whose management included Cargill, Bunge and ADM lobbied against the EU deforestation regulation in 2021, and the regulation was postponed twice (Unearthed, 2022).
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- None on record The period covered by the Mighty Earth loss figures is not stated in the sources reviewed.
- None on record The traders' direct role in the 2025 postponement of the EU regulation is not recorded in the sources reviewed.
- None on record The sources reviewed do not report a measured effect on the Cerrado as a whole.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: ✓ Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers
Company or project
- Soft Commodities Forum 2025 annual reportWBCSD (Soft Commodities Forum) · 2025
Communities and civil society
- Soy and cattle monitor tracker scorecardMighty Earth ·
- EU deforestation regulation lobbyingUnearthed (Greenpeace) · 2022-03-04
Connected cases
Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
- Amazon Soy Moratorium Brazil · 2006–2026
- Bunge (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Soy trader; member of Abiove
- Cargill (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Soy trader; member of Abiove
- ADM (Company) — here: linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Soy trader; member of Abiove
- Brazil's top court rejects challenge to park cut for Ferrogrão railway Brazil · 2026
- Bunge (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Proposer of the Ferrogrão railway
- Cargill (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Proposer of the Ferrogrão railway
- ADM Decatur carbon storage site leaks about 8,000 tons, EPA finds United States · 2023–2024
- ADM (Company) — here: linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: operator of the Decatur storage site
- Cargill IBAMA fine (Brazil) Brazil · 2018
- Cargill (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Soy buyer fined (Cargill Agrícola); WWF-US corporate partner
- Cargill's Turkish factory kept operating despite court annulments Türkiye · 2000
- Cargill (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Operator of the Orhangazi factory
- Indonesia's Merauke food estate released 486,939 hectares of forest Indonesia · 2025
- Mighty Earth (NGO) — here: monitoring source; there: campaign group reporting clearing above 50,000 hectares
- Turkish sugar law, starch-based sugar quota and 2018 sugar factory privatisation Turkey · 2001–2026
- Cargill (Company) — here: named in monitoring of potentially linked losses; linked to 2021 EU lobbying through trade associations; there: Starch-based sugar producer; author of the 2018 privatisation scenario