78 Time September 23, 2019
Late that month, aided by rare atmospheric
conditions , a vast plume of black smoke drifted from
the Amazon and darkened afternoon skies as far away
as São Paulo, over 1,700 miles to the southeast. As
dramatic images of the blackout and fires prolifer-
ated worldwide, protests broke out across Brazil and
in cities around the world. And after the G-7 leaders
held emergency talks during their summit in France,
Bolsonaro relented. “I have a profound love and re-
spect for the Amazon,” he said in a televised address.
“Protecting the rain forest is our duty.” He immedi-
ately dispatched warplanes and army units to Rondô-
nia to fight the blazes.
Few are convinced he means it. “If the government
believes we live on an island, we won’t succeed,” says
Blairo Maggi, a billionaire tycoon known as the “soy
king.” “He created an unfavorable environment for
our exports.” France and Ireland have threatened to
sink the E.U.’s trade deal with the South American
trading bloc Mercosur unless Brazil resolves the “in-
ternational crisis,” and Norway and Germany have
halted donations to the Amazon Fund, the largest pri-
vate investment in saving the rain forest. Congress-
man Alceu Moreira, the leader of the powerful ag-
ricultural caucus in Brazil’s National Congress calls
European pressure simply “a commercial war.” He
says, “Brazil won’t take into consideration the whims
of those who seek to control us from the outside.”
AT leAsT 427 species of mammals live in the
Amazon rain forest, but one now dominates in terms
of raw numbers: the cow. Cattle farming accounts
for up to 80% of deforested land. In 2018, Brazil
exported some $6 billion worth of beef, more than
any other country in history. While stringent supply-
chain standards make Europe a difficult market for
Amazon producers, countries in Africa and Asia—
particularly China—are less discerning.
The law requires small farmers to maintain 80%
of the forest on their land, but the penalties do not
deter livestock farming. Oliveira, the rancher in União
Bandeirantes, cannot legally sell his cattle owing to
embargoes placed by the environmental regulator. In-
stead he sells animals at a discount to a middleman,
who sells them to Frigon, the biggest slaughterhouse
in the state, without a problem. Slaughterhouses
often turn a blind eye to the source of cattle that ar-
rives via third parties—a state of affairs the owner of
Frigon, João Gonçalves, happily admits exists.
Striding confidently around his vast plant as a line
of cow carcasses is gutted by white-clothed employ-
ees on his production line, Gonçalves talks with a
lifetime of certainty about the benefits of expansion
into the Amazon. His slaughterhouse will soon be the
biggest in Brazil, according to the company, killing a
cow every eight seconds. His company exports nearly
40,000 tons of beef each year to Hong Kong, Egypt,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Denmark.