The company maintains a Global Sustainable Agriculture Platform to meet its global target which states that from 2015, the origin of beef bought in Brazil for all Walmart operations worldwide does not contribute to deforestation in the Amazon biome. Walmart uses this platform to provide support for small and mid-sized producers and also aims to improve the efficiency of production, reduce waste and guarantee the sustainable origin of the products.
The company monitors the beef production in the Amazon biome and analyzes the cattle ranches in the biome that supply beef to the chain's meat-producing companies through a system it has developed called the Sistema de Monitoramento de Gestão de Riscos Sociais e Ambientais (Social and Environmental Risks Management Monitoring System). In 2014, the system registered as members:
25
industrial meat-producing companies
34,981 ranches, storing 840,474 items of information
Walmart foresees independent audits occurring in 2015 to assess the entire process of checking the origin of beef from the Amazon region.
São Félix do Xingu
Walmart is working in partnership with the slaughterhouse Marfrig Global Foods, the Sindicato dos Produtores Rurais de São Félix do Xingu (Rural Producers Union) and The Nature Conservancy non-governmental organization (TNC). It offers technical support to the rural producers who want to regularize their environmental situation and increase productivity in the São Félix do Xingu region of southern Pará state.
In 2014, Walmart linked up with Marfrig Global Foods in a communication plan to encourage consumers to check out the origin of the meat they buy. It also carried out a study in the year with the Centro de Estudos em Sustentabilidade – GVes (Sustainability Studies Center) of the Fundação Getulio Vargas business school to assess the application of version 2.0 of the Diretrizes Empresariais para a Valoração Econômica de Serviços Ecossistêmicos – DEVESE (Business Guidelines for the Economic Valuation of Ecosystems Services) developed by the Tendências em Serviços Ecossistêmicos – TeSE (Trends in Ecosystem Services) initiative of the GVces. The study was directed at beef-producing farms taking part in the Carne Sustentável (Sustainable Meat project) located in São Félix do Xingu.
Walmart also aims, within the scope of the project, to promote the planning of the recovery of the deforested areas, support the correct management of the properties, including economic alternatives for livestock-raising and encouraging restoration plans on pilot properties.