Australian retailers encouraged to avoid buying from beef producers contributing to deforestation
More forests are cleared to make way for beef cattle than for any other purpose. But retailers are increasingly being encouraged to only sell beef that's "deforestation-free".
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00:00Cattle grazing on grass. It's an image almost synonymous with Australian countryside.
00:09Beef producers actually occupy about 50% of this country, the whole continent. They are
00:14land managers.
00:16But not everyone is happy with that stewardship.
00:18The biggest areas of deforestation that occur each year in Australia are on land where beef
00:23production is the major land use. But the drivers of land clearing are actually really
00:28diverse and quite complex.
00:30The Australian Conservation Foundation wants to change that by focusing on coals and Woolworths
00:35who sell a third of all beef in Australia.
00:38The biggest driver of deforestation in Australia is beef production, which is why it's so important
00:42that coals and Woolworths play a really key role in helping eliminate deforestation from
00:46Australian supply chains.
00:48ALDI has promised to stop buying beef from properties that clear forests, as have most
00:52major supermarkets in the UK. And the EU is banning importation of that beef. So far,
00:58coals and Woolworths haven't followed suit. But conservationists are ramping up pressure.
01:03ACF has identified and verified 50 properties around Australia that have had deforestation
01:09occurring on them in the last four years. And these are all properties that are linked
01:13to domestic beef supply. These are also properties that have endangered wildlife habitat on them.
01:19ACF wants the supermarkets to guarantee their beef won't come from such properties. But
01:24Cattle Australia says if the clearing is legal, it shouldn't be punished.
01:28If you're managing your land in conjunction with the laws of the land, then I can't see
01:34how we're even in a debate about this.
01:37What's not debatable is the extinction crisis. Australia leads the world in the number of
01:41mammal extinctions and the biggest threat to endangered species is habitat loss.