Highlights

The Cerrado feeds eight of Brazil’s twelve hydrographic regions, and it was there that cattle ranching expanded fastest over the past decade. Data from Do Pasto ao Prato show how the conversion of native vegetation into pasture is concentrated precisely where cattle traceability is weakest, in the municipalities that supply the country’s largest meatpackers.

The Do Pasto ao Prato app lets anyone scan the sanitary code printed on a meat package and check, in seconds, the social and environmental record of the plant that processed it. It draws on public data about deforestation, fire hotspots and enforcement actions, gathered into an open database that anyone can explore.