Cattle

Table of Contents

Forced labor and child labor occur in the cattle sector around the world. However, the nature of the risk – for example, whether the primary risk is child labor associated with animal husbandry or forced labor associated with slaughtering – depends largely on specific geographies in the supply chain. Therefore, supply chain mapping of the geographic footprint of production is an important first step and can support comprehensive risk screening to identify the highest risk areas of production in a supply chain. High-risk areas can then be prioritized for heightened due diligence processes, including on-the-ground assessments when necessary.
Labor risks occur at the breeding, rearing, and fattening stages of cattle production, as well as in slaughtering/processing. (For more information, see the beef profile). Given the multiple levels of risk, traceability systems should be able to trace products to the farm level and should include slaughtering and meat processing facilities.  
Traditional identity preservation product tracking methods for cattle involve physical tags attached or applied to the livestock to facilitate their tracing through the supply chain. While these mechanisms may be suitable for tracing individual animals, they are vulnerable to tampering and are not always viable following the transformation of cattle into beef or leather. Cattle traceability using tags should be capable of data-sharing and interoperability with other traceability methods and technologies to facilitate full supply chain traceability.
Traceability systems that are focused on food safety and the verification of the type of meat and that allow tracing back to the farm and processing level can be leveraged to map supply chains and identify specific worksites that need to be further assessed for labor conditions.

Forced Labor or Trafficking in Persons cited by U.S. Government

Child Labor cited by U.S. Government

Risk of Forced Labor or Trafficking in Persons cited by other source

Risk of Child Labor cited by other source

Documented presence of migrant workers

Documented presence or significant likelihood of third-party labor recruiters

Documented presence of other vulnerable workers

The U.S. Department of Labor has cited forced labor in cattle raising in Bolivia, Brazil, Niger, Paraguay, and South Sudan.¹ The U.S. Department of State reports the existence of forced labor in cattle herding and farming in Botswana, South Korea, Malawi, Mauritania, and Zimbabwe, with human trafficking into the cattle herding industry present in Cameroon, Chad, Eswatini, Kenya, South Korea, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.²
The U.S. Department of Labor has identified child labor in cattle raising in Brazil, Chad, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mexico, Paraguay, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.³ The U.S. Department of State has noted child labor linked to cattle herding in Botswana, Cameroon, Eswatini, Kenya, Mauritania, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.⁴ The U.S. Department of State has also reported that children from Angola are trafficked and forced to work in cattle herding in Namibia.⁵
News reports have identified risks of forced labor in cattle raising in Brazil.⁶
Other sources, such as the International Labor Organization, have reported child labor in cattle raising around the world.⁷Children, who work both for family members and as hired workers, are mainly involved in herding and caring for cattle.⁸
Migrant workers in cattle production are common in multiple countries.⁹ In Brazil, workers on cattle farms are usually internal migrants who moved to rural agricultural areas in search of work.¹⁰ A Brazilian investigative agency reported that these migrant workers are often housed in poor conditions and paid very little.¹¹ It has also found that migrants from other South American countries have moved to Brazil to work on cattle ranches, including undocumented Paraguayan migrants.¹²
There is a reported presence of labor recruiters in Brazil who lure workers away from their homes towards agricultural regions.¹³ Labor recruiters have also been identified hiring migrant workers for cattle ranching in the United States.¹⁴

Large numbers of dispersed, unorganized, or informal small producers or other worksites

Complex/opaque supply chains and/or lack of vertical integration

Multiple points of aggregation, co-mingling, and/or transformation across supply chain

High degree of flexibility in procurement practices of downstream entities

Cattle producers often specialize in only one of the cattle raising practices: breeding, rearing, or fattening.¹⁵ This results in a large number of producers being involved in the supply chain before the cattle slaughtering stage.
Because cattle rearing farmers tend to partake in only one stage of cattle raising,¹⁶ cattle are traded frequently between suppliers before reaching the slaughterhouses,¹⁷ sometimes across international borders.¹⁸ This can make cattle supply chains challenging to trace.
Slaughterhouses typically assess the value of a cattle carcass following slaughter, meaning that there are no fixed contracts between ranchers and slaughterhouses.¹⁹ This can contribute to a degree of flexibility in the supply chain.

Scale or nature of risk varies significantly based on geographic area of production

Scale or nature of risk is present across multiple tiers or nodes of supply chain (including in associated downstream or upstream goods)

Scale or nature of risk is strongly associated with certain types of suppliers/entities

Most cases of forced labor in cattle raising in Brazil have occurred in rural areas.²⁰
The risk of forced labor in cattle raising is most strongly associated with the breeding and rearing stages of production, which occur before the fattening and slaughter stages.²¹ Child labor is associated with cattle herding.²² There have also been reports of child labor further down the supply chain in milk processing, slaughterhouses, meat processing, and leather garment preparation.²³

Raising cattle for slaughter and use in the beef and leather industries involves three stages of production.²⁴ The first stage is breeding, which includes the birth of a calf and its growth until weaning, which occurs between six and eight months of age.²⁵ The second stage is rearing, which lasts from weaning until the reproductive stage for female cows and the fattening stage for males.²⁶ This is the longest stage in production; for example, for cows slaughtered at four years of age, this stage can last about two and a half years.²⁷ The final stage, fattening, prepares steers (male cows that have been castrated) for slaughter by increasing their weight to increase production volume.²⁸

Breeding

Rearing

Fattening

Slaughter

Cottonseed, which can be used as feed for livestock, can be a by-product of cotton production. Both cottonseed and cotton are associated with child and forced labor in some geographies.

Textiles Apparel and Luxury Goods

Leather is made from cattle and used in the production of leather goods.

Food and Beverage

Cattle is used for the production of beef for human consumption.

Brazil³⁰
India
United States of America
Ethiopia
China
Argentina
Pakistan
Mexico
Chad
Sudan

Beef traceability using tags and blockchain Cattle traceability using RFID tags

1
List of Goods Produced by Child or Forced Labor. Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 28 September 2022, www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods?tid=All&field_exp_good_target_id=5761&field_exp_exploitation_type_target_id_1=All&items_per_page=10&combine=&page=0
2
2022 Trafficking in Persons Report. U.S. Department of State, 19 July 2022, www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/337308-2022-TIP-REPORT-inaccessible.pdf 
3
List of Goods Produced by Child or Forced Labor. Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 28 September 2022, www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods?tid=All&field_exp_good_target_id=5761&field_exp_exploitation_type_target_id_1=All&items_per_page=10&combine=&page=0
4
2022 Trafficking in Persons Report. U.S. Department of State, 19 July 2022, www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/337308-2022-TIP-REPORT-inaccessible.pdf 
5
2022 Trafficking in Persons Report. U.S. Department of State, 19 July 2022, www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/337308-2022-TIP-REPORT-inaccessible.pdf 
6
Phillips, Dom. “Brazilian beef farms used workers kept in conditions similar to slavery.” The Guardian, 6 January 2021, www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/06/brazilian-beef-farms-used-workers-kept-in-conditions-similar-to-slavery; Campos, André. “Supermarkets purchased meat from suppliers charged with using slave labor.” Repórter Brasil, 16 October 2019, reporterbrasil.org.br/2019/10/supermarkets-purchased-meat-from-suppliers-charged-with-using-slave-labor/
7
Livestock Production. International Labour Organisation, www.ilo.org/ipec/areas/Agriculture/WCMS_172431/lang–en/index.htm#P5_465; Shumetie, A. and Mamo, K. “Effect of cropland and livestock ownership on child labour in eastern Ethiopia: empirical examination of the Wealth Paradox.” International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 2019, ijccep.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40723-019-0061-x
8
Children’s work in the livestock sector: Herding and beyond. Food and Agricultural Organization, 2013, www.fao.org/3/i3098e/i3098e.pdf
9
Ramos, A.K., Adhikari, S., Yoder, A.M., & Rautiainen, R.H. “Occupational Injuries among Latino/a Immigrant Cattle Feedyard Workers in the Central States Region of the United States,” Int J Environ Res Public Health, 18(16), 2021, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34444570/; Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf
10
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf
11
Phillips, D. “Brazilian beef farms used workers kept in conditions similar to slavery.” The Guardian, 6 January 2021, www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/06/brazilian-beef-farms-used-workers-kept-in-conditions-similar-to-slavery
12
Phillips, D. “Brazilian beef farms used workers kept in conditions similar to slavery.” The Guardian, 6 January 2021, www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/06/brazilian-beef-farms-used-workers-kept-in-conditions-similar-to-slavery
13
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf
14
Martínez-Beltrán, S. “Without enough workers in the U.S. to fill jobs, ranches and farms in Texas look abroad,” The Texas Newsroom, 21 December 2022, www.kut.org/politics/2022-12-21/without-enough-workers-in-the-u-s-to-fill-jobs-ranches-and-farms-in-texas-look-abroad
15
Martínez-Beltrán, S. “Without enough workers in the U.S. to fill jobs, ranches and farms in Texas look abroad,” The Texas Newsroom, 21 December 2022, www.kut.org/politics/2022-12-21/without-enough-workers-in-the-u-s-to-fill-jobs-ranches-and-farms-in-texas-look-abroad
16
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf
17
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
18
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cattle & Beef. 26 September 2022, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef/sector-at-a-glance.
19
Nunes, R. et al. “Ranchers and slaughterhouses: beef cattle pricing and supply chain coordination in Brazil.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275097664_Ranchers_and_slaughterhouses_beef_cattle_pricing_and_supply_chain_coordination_in_Brazil.
20
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
21
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
22
Livestock Production. International Labor Organization, www.ilo.org/ipec/areas/Agriculture/WCMS_172431/lang–en/index.htm.
23
hildren’s work in the livestock sector: Herding and beyond. Food and Agricultural Organization, 2013, www.fao.org/3/i3098e/i3098e.pdf.
24
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf
25
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
26
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
27
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
28
Campos, A. and Locatelli, P. “Slave Labor in Brazil’s Meat Industry.” Repórter Brasil, January 2021 reporterbrasil.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monitor-8-Slave-labor-in-Brazils-meat-industry.pdf.
29
List of exporters for the selected product in 2021. Product : 010229 Live cattle (excluding pure-bred for breeding). ITC Trade Map, www.trademap.org/Country_SelProduct.aspx?nvpm=1%7c%7c%7c%7c%7c010229%7c%7c%7c6%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c1.
30
Crops and livestock products. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL.

Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL‐35805. 100 percent of the total costs of the project or program is financed with federal funds, for a total of USD 4,000,000. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government

Have questions? Contact us at: streams@verite.org
www.verite.org

Supply Chain Characteristics that Impact Traceability

Traceability Takeaways

Nature of Labor Rights Risk/Vulnerable Workers

Features of Production and Supply Chain

Distribution of Labor Risk in Various Production Areas

Linked Upstream and Downstream Risks

Risk in Nodes in Cattle Production

Associated Upstream Goods with Labor Risk

Associated Downstream Goods and Consumer Sectors

Top Global Countries

Examples & Resources: Traceability Efforts Associated With Cattle

Footnotes