France's "Casino" supermarket chain was in court in France last week.
The reason was a lawsuit filed by an alliance of Brazilian and Colombian indigenous peoples who want to fight the retailer's sale of beef linked to land grabbing and deforestation in the Amazon. This is because "Casino" sells meat from slaughterhouses that buy their cattle largely from suppliers who are held responsible for Amazon deforestation of at least 50,000 hectares over the past 12 years. The whole thing, by the way, is officially run by the Brazilian company Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA), the largest Brazilian company operating in the retail sector and the second largest in all of Latin America. What is Brazilian here, however, is mainly the name and the headquarters in São Paulo, because the company belongs to a French retail conglomerate group. Therefore, the basis of the lawsuit is a law that was passed in France in 2017 and stipulates that French companies must not allow human rights and environmental violations in their supply chains. „Casino“ naturally defends itself against the accusations and rejects them: since 2016, suppliers have not been allowed to carry out "any deforestation of the Amazon, any slave-like working conditions, any child labour and any invasion of indigenous land or nature reserves". In addition, land ownership documents must be presented.
Cleared Amazon in Rondonia Stae (Brazil)
