{"id":104431,"date":"2025-08-29T14:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/104431\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:29:21","slug":"woolworths-takes-different-direction-to-coles-on-deforestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/104431\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths takes different direction to Coles on deforestation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WOOLWORTHS has downgraded beef the \u201clow risk\u201d category of commodities its pledge to have \u201cno deforestation\u201d in its supply chains \u2013 taking a different direction from its main competitor Coles.<\/p>\n

In a sustainability report released today, Woolworths said it had originally included beef on its list of \u201chigh risk\u201d commodities when it made the pledge last year \u2013 however, further engagement had pushed the company to downgrade its stance on beef.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn May 2025, following extensive engagement with the Australian Government, the European Union Commission re-rated Australia to be a low risk country, reflecting the changes in land management practices across the Australian beef industry over many years,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing this, we will prioritise progress on our remaining high risk commodities of paper, pulp and timber (packaging and products), palm oil (food and non-food), cocoa, and soy (in stockfeed).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In announcing its deforestation commitment yesterday<\/a>, Coles said it will be tracing cattle back to place of last transaction \u2013 which in Coles\u2019 case will mostly be feedlots.<\/p>\n

Coles said it did not have access to full lifetime traceability through to farmgate without access to the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), so it will not have whole of life traceability until changes are made. That prompted environmental groups to call for more access to NLIS.<\/p>\n

Woolworths says it will be working with industry to develop a traceability program as well. It says it will look into any alleged deforestation on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our beef suppliers, whilst this sector has been rerated as low risk, we take any instances of deforestation identified in our supply chain seriously, and these will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, firstly seeking to understand the specific circumstances, and working collaboratively to develop agreed actions to support progress towards our goal,\u201d today\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n

The deforestation definition battle<\/p>\n

After sending through a wave of press releases yesterday claiming Coles\u2019 announcement as a win, environmental groups have changed their tone with Woolworths announcement today.<\/p>\n

The Wilderness Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation both said they were concerned Woolworths is not taking the commitment seriously.<\/p>\n

These groups have largely been behind Woolworths decision to commit to a no-deforestation policy in the first place \u2013 with an aggressive campaign<\/a> on social media, protests at board meetings and a friendly media helping them do the bidding.<\/p>\n

With the deforestation policies on the cards, Cattle Australia consulted widely on the topic and wrote its own definition of deforestation which concluded that deforestation was illegal clearing of land that meets forest thresholds.<\/p>\n

The environmental groups had their own definition and had lobbied hard against CA\u2019s definition, insinuating that CA was weaponising the dictionary.<\/p>\n

CA has welcomed Woolworths decision today, as it did with the EU making Australian beef a \u201clow risk\u201d of deforestation.<\/p>\n

In a statement released yesterday in response to the Coles announcement, CA chief executive officer Will Evans said there was growing support for the industry\u2019s land management practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU itself has classified Australia as being in the lowest possible risk category for deforestation.<\/p>\n

While there are groups who claim Australia as being a global \u2018hotspot\u2019 for deforestation, this is a claim not supported by science, nor is it supported by the Australian Government, any State or Territory Government and now not supported by the most environmentally progressive government collective in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny entity continuing to make claims relating to significant negative deforestation outcomes within the beef industry is deliberately perpetuating falsehoods and should face appropriate Government sanctions for doing so \u2013 especially where that entity may also be a registered \u2018charity\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cCattle Australia remains an advocate for science-based decision making that is fit for purpose for the Australian environment recognising the extent of State, Territory and Federal Government legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WOOLWORTHS has downgraded beef the \u201clow risk\u201d category of commodities its pledge to have \u201cno deforestation\u201d in its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-104431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}