Environmental group names multi-billion dollar firm Cargill as the ‘Worst Company in the World because of its ‘unscrupulous business practices and environmental destruction’
- Mighty Earth has denounced the Minnesota-based production firm Cargill as the ‘Worst Company in the World’ over its apparent poor environmental practices
- Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products globally, and raked in $114.7b in revenue in 2018, making it one of the largest firm’s on earth
- ‘In my 40-year long career in Congress, I took on a range of companies that engaged in abusive practices,’ Mighty Earth Chairman Henry Waxman reports
- ‘I have seen firsthand the harmful impact of businesses that do not bring their ethics with them to work. But Cargill stands out,’ Waxman said of the global giant
- This issues mentioned in the report are also compounded by Brazil’s incumbent President Bolsonaro’s rollback of vital environmental protections the report says
A damning report released titled ‘Cargill: The Worst Company in the World’, details ten years of alleged poor environmental practice from the company
Environmental campaign organization Mighty Earth has denounced the Minnesota-based production firm Cargill as the ‘Worst Company in the World’ over its apparent unscrupulous business practices and destruction of the environment.
A damning report released by the non-profit on Thursday titled ‘Cargill: The Worst Company in the World’, details ten years of alleged poor environmental practice from the company, which provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products globally, and raked in $114.7 billion in revenue in 2018.
Among the damning accusations aimed at the firm is that indigenous people have suffered a horrific rise in illnesses related to pesticides used by Cargill to grow soy – often sprayed directly overhead without concern for the people below.
A Cargill plant dominates the landscape along Wolf Lake on the edge of Forsythe Park, Indiana
The Might Earth report goes on to state that: ‘Cargill is poised to further wreak havoc on fragile ecosystems in Brazil, taking advantage of President Bolsonaro’s rollback of vital environmental protections.’
Some more of the appalling findings within the report include:
- Incentivizing huge deforestation despite pledging to end the practice by 2020.
- Being fined $10m in 2017 for ‘deliberately misreporting its trade values – by up to 90 percent – in order to defraud both the government and its trading partners.
- Indigenous peoples who depend on forests had their land encroached upon by Cargill-linked soy plantations in Brazil and have been forced off their lands.
- Same indigenous people have experienced sharp rises in cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, and illnesses linked to pesticides and herbicides used to grow soy.
- One of the top 10 polluters in the food industry for more than dozen pollutants, including formaldehyde, lead, asbestos, hydrogen cyanide, and mercury.
‘In my 40-year long career in Congress, I took on a range of companies that engaged in abusive practices,’ Mighty Earth Chairman Henry Waxman writes in the report.
‘I have seen firsthand the harmful impact of businesses that do not bring their ethics with them to work. But Cargill stands out.’
Florian Schattenmann, chief technology officer of Cargill Inc
‘As one of the largest companies in the world, Cargill has a responsibility to address its outsized impact,’ Mighty Earth CEO Glenn Hurowitz said.
‘Mighty Earth runs campaigns around the globe to advocate for sustainable business practices, and Cargill kept showing up when our investigations identified bad actors.
‘Whether we were working on palm oil in Southeast Asia, cocoa farming in West Africa, or soy cultivation in South America, Cargill was always there, ready to thwart progress and impede joint conservation efforts.
‘Given their ubiquity and obstinance, we decided it was time to take a closer look at their checkered past.’
‘In my 40-year long career in Congress, I took on a range of companies that engaged in abusive practices,’ Mighty Earth Chairman Henry Waxman (pictured) writes in the report
Among the damning accusations aimed at the firm is that indigenous people have suffered a horrific rise in illnesses related to pesticides used by Cargill to grow soy – often sprayed directly overhead without concern for the people below
This issues mentioned in the report are also compounded by Brazil’s incumbent President Bolsonaro’s rollback of vital environmental protections, it states.
Mighty Earth states in their report that they repeatedly tried to engage in discussions with the giant firm but were rebuffed, with the company refusing to confront the issues highlighted.
‘Cargill has refused, time and time again, to substantively address the problems Mighty Earth identified,’ the report states.
The report continues: ‘Cargill continues to prioritize the deforesters in its supply chains over the climate or their customers’ sustainability demands.’
The DailyMail.com has contacted Cargill for a statement and put the claims made by Might Earth to them directly. No response was received at the time of publication.