October 17, 2023
13h
Louvain-la-Neuve
B336 (Mercator)
Brazil is one of the largest beef producers in the world and most of its production is consumed domestically. Beef produced in Brazil is mostly free-range, covering large territories and being associated with deforestation and carbon emissions. Additionally, the beef sector accounts for some of the highest rates of forced labor - concentrated on farms - and a significant number of sanitary code violations. Still the lack of transparency in the supply chain does not allow beef consumers to chose products according to their socio-environmental or sanitary compliance performance nor allow actors to understand the permeability of these products in the internal market. The “do Pasto ao Prato” [from the pasture to the plate, https://www.dopastoaoprato.com.br/] initiative aims to map these missing links in the Brazilian supply chain using a citizen science approach. In this context, the dPaP team faces many challenges, from modelling the impact of beef farming to improving the usability of the app by citizens scientists. I will be talking about some key points of this process, and also how I intend to study possible effects of land use change dynamics related to beef production on the well-being of local populations.