Intensive agricultural trade is often associated with environmental injustice, affecting marginalised communities while depleting forests, rivers and biodiversity. To tackle biodiversity loss and forest degradation, and to decouple agricultural imports from deforestation in commodity producing countries, in 2023 the EU approved the Regulation on Deforestation Free Products (EUDR). However, civil society organisations claim that the EUDR overlooks the underlying drivers of environmental injustice, for humans and non-humans. For example, land tenure conflicts between local communities and big farmers, and the financial stakeholders linked to activities leading to forest loss and land dispossession. In this article, we assess the Dutch-Brazilian beef and soy value chains through the lens of intersectional environmental justice (IEJ). Intersectionality helps us identify injustices, the drivers and associated actors. Brazil is the leading soy exporter globally, the Netherlands is the main soy importer in the EU, and the bilateral soy trade is connected to forest degradation, rising emissions, and pesticide pollution. Similarly, international beef trade directly connects the Netherlands with deforestation and land conflicts in Brazil. Yet, no previous study has mapped intersectional environmental injustices in these supply chains. To close this gap, we identify and discuss such injustices. We also discuss how these injustices could potentially be targeted in the EUDR. Our data includes 20 semi-structured interviews with environmental NGOs, businesses, government and academics from both countries. The paper identifies groups causing the issues, as well as the most impacted. We also examine resistance projects against these injustices. With this approach, we suggest how future versions of the EUDR can potentially benefit from tackling such problems.
