Two U.S. commodity traders bought soybeans in Brazil from farmers trying to evict a traditional community from South America's largest savanna, where deforestation is hastening global warming, watchdog group Global Witness found on Tuesday.
Reuters reports Brazilian grains producers, who say they bought the disputed land legally, have been fighting in court since 2017 to evict the Capao do Modesto people from part of the Cerrado, where the cattle herders say they have lived for 200 years.
Money transfers seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation show that during 2017 and 2018 Cargill paid 880,000 reais ($268,000 at the exchange rate on Dec 31, 2017) to soybean producer Agropecuaria Sementes Talisma, one of seven claimants in the case.
ADM paid the same company 530,000 reais ($162,000 at the exchange rate on Nov 30, 2017), the transfers show.
Cargill confirmed in emailed comments to Reuters that it had bought soybeans from Talisma in 2016 and 2017, but said it no longer had a commercial relationship with the firm.
ADM told Reuters it had launched an investigation after receiving a letter from Global Witness alleging that suppliers in its supply chain in Bahia were responsible for irregularities that violated its purchasing policies in the area of human rights.
