Tagging Millions of Cows to Stop Amazon Deforestation | Jennifer Morris, The Nature Conservancy

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]One of the first things I did as CEO of TNC is I went to the board and I said, "We have an opportunity where we have the governor of the state of Para in which is hosting the next COP, of course, in Belém >> these dots.

[00:00:12]>> Yes, and he's basically said, "I want no more deforestation in my cattle." 26 million cattle.

[00:00:20]The same amount of cattle the entire country of Australia has.

[00:00:23]I want 100% guarantee that none of those cows being produced and sent overseas or used domestically in Brazil are coming from deforested land.

[00:00:33]>> Nice.

[00:00:33]>> So, we had a policy opportunity. We had companies that were willing to engage with us, and now we're doing a whole transparency program where we were tagging, you know, hundreds of thousands, and soon to be millions, of cows, and we're able to tell with new satellite technology and AI where those cows are coming from. So, we can actually stop this. So, that's a big part of our agriculture >> Which is huge. I think, you know, the transparency and the potential of all of this to really be able to get eyes on where our food is coming from and what environmental hits it's causing >> Yes.

[00:01:05]>> where it comes from. Really valuable, and consumers can then reach out and make the right choices and drive some of this.

[00:01:13]>> Absolutely. And I will tell you the big companies that we work with are really interested cuz beef is at all-time high right now. So, if you very expensive right now, the highest prices we've ever seen, and they're looking for new sources where they can be guaranteed that they're sustainable. So, we still have a long way to go, but exciting progress there.