ClientEarth legal complaint against Cargill FAQs

ClientEarth has filed a legal complaint with the US National Contact Point alleging that Cargill's due diligence processes in Brazil are insufficient to prevent deforestation and human rights abuses. The complaint highlights failures in monitoring soy sourced from the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, as well as issues with indirect land use change and the displacement of Indigenous Peoples. While Cargill has committed to being deforestation-free in the Amazon and Cerrado by 2025, ClientEarth argues these policies lack necessary commitments to be 'conversion free' and fail to address the systemic risks associated with its vast operations in Brazil.

• Cargill is a dominant force in the Brazilian soy market, acting as the largest exporter of soy from the country and accounting for 10.5% of all soy produced in-country.
• ClientEarth alleges that Cargill breached OECD guidelines by failing to conduct adequate environmental due diligence on soy from the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, indirectly sourced soy, third-party soy handled at its ports, and indirect land use change, as well as failing on human rights due diligence in Brazil.
• Evidence from various reports links Cargill to soy grown on illegally 'grabbed' land, including the Estrondo estate in Bahía, ancestral lands of the Munduruka Indigenous peoples in Pará, and other areas in the Cerrado where traditional communities were expelled.
• Cargill's commitment to be deforestation-free in the Amazon and Cerrado by 2025 is criticized because it does not include a commitment to be 'conversion free', which would protect all native ecosystems beyond forests.
• There is a significant disparity in Cargill's soy policies between biomes; while it adheres to the Soy Moratorium's 2008 cut-off date in the Amazon, no equivalent cut-off date exists for the Cerrado.
• The document describes 'indirect land use change' as a process where converting old pastureland to cropland pushes new pasture expansion into pristine ecosystems, noting that for every hectare of soy expansion onto pasture, there is at least one hectare of pasture expansion onto forest in the Amazon and Cerrado.
• The Cerrado is identified as a critical carbon store containing approximately 13.7bn tonnes of carbon dioxide, yet only 7.5% of its area is legally protected, and land-conversion increased by 25% in 2022 compared to 2021.

APA

ClientEarth (2023). ClientEarth legal complaint against Cargill FAQs. https://www.clientearth.org/media/0lzf00vs/clientearth-legal-complaint-against-cargill-faq.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. ClientEarth legal complaint against Cargill FAQs. 2023. https://www.clientearth.org/media/0lzf00vs/clientearth-legal-complaint-against-cargill-faq.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=ClientEarth legal complaint against Cargill FAQs |date=May 2023 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/0lzf00vs/clientearth-legal-complaint-against-cargill-faq.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2023clientearth, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{ClientEarth legal complaint against Cargill FAQs}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/0lzf00vs/clientearth-legal-complaint-against-cargill-faq.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }