Investigation Links US Green Aviation Fuel Producer to Illegal Amazon Deforestation through Brazilian Beef Tallow Supply Chains

A major United States biofuels producer that supplies "green" aviation fuel to the United Kingdom and the European Union has been linked to a Brazilian supply chain involving illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, according to recent shipping data and judicial records. Diamond Green Diesel (DGD), a joint venture between the prominent U.S. oil refiner Valero Energy Corporation and the Texas-based rendering giant Darling Ingredients Inc., has reportedly sourced hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef tallow from Brazil over the last three years. While marketed as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, a portion of this feedstock has been traced back to a meatpacking operation fined for purchasing cattle from an illegally deforested reserve in the world’s largest rainforest.

The findings, originating from a joint investigation by the nonprofit investigative outlet Repórter Brasil and Greenpeace’s Unearthed, reveal a significant traceability gap in the burgeoning Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) industry. As global airlines and governments rush to meet ambitious carbon-reduction targets, the demand for "waste-based" feedstocks like beef tallow has skyrocketed. However, the investigation suggests that the very mechanisms intended to green the aviation sector may be inadvertently subsidizing environmental destruction in the Amazon.

The Supply Chain Connection

The investigation centered on Diamond Green Diesel’s relationship with a specific rendering plant: Pacífico Indústria e Comércio de Óleos e Proteínas Ltda. Located in Cacoal, a city in the far-western Amazonian state of Rondônia, the Pacífico plant is a subsidiary of the FASA Group, which was acquired by DGD co-parent Darling Ingredients in 2022. According to a 2022 court document involving a labor dispute, Pacífico identified the Rondônia-based meatpacker DistriBoi as its "largest supplier of raw materials."

DistriBoi has a documented history of environmental infractions. In 2024, the company was fined for the illegal purchase of cattle from the Jaci-Paraná extractive reserve, a protected area in Rondônia that has become a flashpoint for land-grabbing and illegal ranching. Trade database records from Panjiva indicate that DGD’s Texas refinery received approximately 15,000 tonnes of tallow from the Pacífico plant between 2023 and 2025. This tallow, derived from the fat of slaughtered cattle, is a primary ingredient in the production of DGD’s renewable diesel and SAF.

This is not the first time DGD has faced such allegations. Previous reports by Reuters and Repórter Brasil identified two other rendering facilities linked to DGD that sourced animal fats from slaughterhouses connected to illegal ranches. These recurring links suggest a systemic issue in how the biofuels industry monitors its secondary raw materials.

The Devastation of Jaci-Paraná

The Jaci-Paraná reserve serves as a grim case study for the impact of illegal ranching. Established 30 years ago, the reserve was intended to protect the traditional livelihoods of rubber tappers and nut harvesters while preserving a pristine rainforest canopy. Over the decades, however, violent land-grabbers and ranchers have encroached upon the territory. Today, nearly 80% of the reserve’s forest cover has been decimated, replaced by vast pastures for cattle.

Local Indigenous activist Neidinha Suruí, a prominent figure in the 2025 Emmy Award-winning documentary "O Território," has witnessed this destruction firsthand. "The damage to biodiversity has been devastating," she stated. "It is sad to see what has been lost. If there were no meat processors buying illegally sourced cattle, there would be no land grabbing and no deforestation."

The legal fallout in Rondônia is extensive. Authorities have launched more than 50 lawsuits related to land-grabbing in the Jaci-Paraná reserve alone. DistriBoi is named in 31 of these cases. While the meatpacker has previously denied wrongdoing and stated that the matters are under judicial review, the persistent overlap between its supply chain and illegally cleared land continues to draw international scrutiny.

The Regulatory Loophole: Waste vs. Primary Commodities

The core of the controversy lies in how international regulators and certification bodies classify beef tallow. In many jurisdictions, including the UK and the EU, tallow is categorized as a "waste" or "residue" product. Because it is a byproduct of the meat industry, it is often treated with less environmental oversight than primary commodities like beef, leather, or soy.

The International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), the most widely used certification scheme for green fuels, does not currently require producers to prove that the cattle from which tallow is derived were raised on non-deforested land. This creates a significant loophole: while a steak from a cow raised on illegally deforested land might be banned from certain markets due to strict traceability laws, the fat from that same cow can be processed into "sustainable" jet fuel and sold at a premium as a green product.

"There is clearly an oversight within the rules if the products, in this case animal tallow, are originally coming from deforested land," said Cian Delaney, a campaign coordinator at the advocacy group Transport & Environment. This regulatory "blind spot" means that government mandates designed to lower aviation emissions may actually be increasing the profit margins of illegal ranchers in Brazil.

Economic Scale and Global Demand

The economic drivers behind this trade are formidable. Brazil’s exports of beef tallow to the United States have surged from less than 10,000 tonnes in 2021 to nearly 400,000 tonnes in 2024. This growth is mirrored by DGD’s increasing presence in the European market. In 2025, DGD shipped 134,000 tonnes of SAF, valued at approximately $90 million, from its Port Arthur, Texas refinery to the United Kingdom. During the same period, the company exported over $1.1 billion worth of various biofuels to the EU.

The aviation sector is under immense pressure to decarbonize, as it currently accounts for roughly 2.5% of global carbon emissions. Unlike road transport, which can be electrified, long-haul aviation remains dependent on liquid fuels. SAF is currently the industry’s primary hope for reaching "Net Zero" by 2050. The UK has implemented a mandate requiring jet fuel to contain 2% SAF by the end of 2025, a figure that rises to 10% by 2030 and 22% by 2040.

Corporate and Official Responses

In response to the investigation, Darling Ingredients issued a statement denying that its Pacífico plant sourced materials from DistriBoi’s Ji-Paranâ facility—one of two slaughterhouses the meatpacker operates. However, the company did not address the 2022 court document or DistriBoi’s other regional operations, which have also been linked to illegal ranching.

"Our relationships are typically with the slaughterhouse, several levels removed from cattle ranchers," a spokesperson for Darling Ingredients said. "Regardless, we are committed to ensuring our raw materials are deforestation-free. We expect our raw material suppliers to abide by our supplier code of conduct."

Valero Energy and Diamond Green Diesel did not respond to multiple requests for comment. For its part, DistriBoi stated that the legal matters regarding the Jaci-Paraná reserve are "under review by higher courts," but did not elaborate on its commercial ties to the rendering plant.

Broader Implications for the Biofuel Industry

The DGD case highlights a growing skepticism regarding the "greenness" of Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Experts warn that the rush to scale SAF could lead to "indirect land-use change," where the demand for waste fats pushes other industries (such as animal feed or soap manufacturing) toward less sustainable alternatives like palm oil, or encourages fraud within the supply chain.

A similar investigation in early 2025 found that the Finnish biofuels giant Neste was sourcing ingredients from an opaque supply chain in Asia, where fresh palm oil was allegedly being passed off as used cooking oil (UCO) to meet European sustainability criteria.

As the world’s appetite for air travel continues to grow, the reliance on SAF becomes more entrenched. However, without a fundamental shift in traceability—one that tracks the product back to the farm or ranch level rather than just the rendering plant—the aviation industry risks trading one environmental crisis for another.

"If there’s tallow coming from land that’s been deforested, then those emissions might be so high that you might not be getting to the greenhouse gas reduction threshold," noted Anna Krajinska, a director at Transport & Environment UK.

For the Brazilian government, the issue is equally pressing. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to achieve zero deforestation by 2030. While enforcement has increased, the high global demand for "waste" products from the cattle industry provides a persistent economic incentive for illegal land clearing. Until the international "green" fuel market closes its traceability gaps, the shadow of the Amazon’s destruction will continue to loom over the future of sustainable flight.