Laundering and evasion in response to antislavery policies in Brazil's cattle sector.
- 1Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726.
- 2Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706.
- 3Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.
Abstract
Modern slavery remains pervasive across many economic sectors. Progress toward eradicating it has been partially hindered by a lack of tested, comprehensive policy responses. Using data on millions of cattle transactions in Brazil, we evaluated how ranchers changed their selling behavior after being added to the "Dirty List," a public registry that names and shames employers found to use modern slavery. Dirty Listed ranchers significantly reduced direct sales to slaughterhouses that signed sustainable supply chain commitments but evaded sanctions by laundering cattle through compliant intermediaries or selling to nonsignatory slaughterhouses. These responses weakened the financial cost of listing to ranchers, and likely allowed beef and leather linked to modern slave labor to enter international supply chains. Our findings highlight the limits of downstream enforcement and underscore the need to monitor upstream suppliers to ensure slavery-free supply chains.
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BibTeX
@article{mittelberg2026laundering,
title = {{Laundering and evasion in response to antislavery policies in Brazil's cattle sector.}},
author = {Tara Mittelberg and Marin E Skidmore and Juliana L S C Brandão and Lisa L Rausch and Holly K Gibbs},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2532121123},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42863067},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Laundering and evasion in response to antislavery policies in Brazil's cattle sector.
AU - Tara Mittelberg
AU - Marin E Skidmore
AU - Juliana L S C Brandão
AU - Lisa L Rausch
AU - Holly K Gibbs
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2532121123
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42863067
AB - Modern slavery remains pervasive across many economic sectors. Progress toward eradicating it has been partially hindered by a lack of tested, comprehensive policy responses. Using data on millions of cattle transactions in Brazil, we evaluated how ranchers changed their selling behavior after being added to the "Dirty List," a public registry that names and shames employers found to use modern slavery. Dirty Listed ranchers significantly reduced direct sales to slaughterhouses that signed sustainable supply chain commitments but evaded sanctions by laundering cattle through compliant intermediaries or selling to nonsignatory slaughterhouses. These responses weakened the financial cost of listing to ranchers, and likely allowed beef and leather linked to modern slave labor to enter international supply chains. Our findings highlight the limits of downstream enforcement and underscore the need to monitor upstream suppliers to ensure slavery-free supply chains.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -