Collagen Craze Drives Deforestation and Rights Abuses

[Judi Lynn]

MARCH 4, 2023

Country:
Brazil

Authors:

Elisângela Mendonça
RAINFOREST INVESTIGATIONS FELLOW

Fábio Zuker
AMAZON RJF GRANTEE

Andrew Wasley
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

For the first time an investigation has linked collagen powder to violence against Indigenous peoples in Brazilian forests.

The stench arrives before the lorries do. They are carrying skins that were stripped from cattle carcasses days ago. Flies are everywhere.

The lorries’ destination is Amparo, a small industrial town in São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. Here, Rousselot, a company owned by the Texan business Darling Ingredients, extracts collagen – the active ingredient in health supplements at the centre of a global wellness craze.

But while collagen’s most evangelical users claim the protein can improve hair, skin, nails and joints, slowing the ageing process, it has a dubious effect on the health of the planet. Collagen can be extracted from fish, pig and cattle flesh, but behind the wildly popular “bovine” variety in particular lies an opaque industry driving the destruction of tropical forests and fuelling violence and human rights abuses in the Brazilian Amazon.

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Guardian, ITV and O Joio e O Trigo has found that tens of thousands of cattle raised on farms damaging tropical forests were processed at abattoirs connected to international collagen supply chains.

Some of this collagen can be traced all the way to Nestlé-owned Vital Proteins, a major producer of bovine collagen supplements championed by the actress Jennifer Aniston. Vital Proteins is sold globally – including online on Amazon, in Walmart stores in the US, in Holland & Barrett and Boots in the UK and in Costco in both countries.

More:
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/collagen-craze-drives-deforestation-and-rights-abuses

[2naSalit]

1. I don't use that stuff.

I'm going be wrinkly, I'm over it.

[Judi Lynn]

2. That goes for me, too. You're not alone. It seems silly until you realize where they get it!

As a kid, I felt horrified to learn they killed whales for cosmetic products, too. So vicious. So stupid.

[Easterncedar]

3. Missed this earlier

It’s horrifying. We do tend to ignore everything that’s not right in front of us. Thanks for bringing the important stories to light, Judi Lynn. We need to be aware of the global implications of our first-world supply demands.