Stop Financing Factory Farming Victory: IFC Cancels $20M Loan to Agribusiness in Brazil. Now, What Next?
We have good news to celebrate! Following sustained opposition from Brazil’s Apinajé Indigenous leaders and a global coalition of over 100 civil society organizations, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank Group, has officially withdrawn its proposed $20 million loan to Brazilian animal feed giant Grupo Agronorte.
This is a historic win for Indigenous rights, environmental protection, and the movement to hold public development banks accountable.
Standing Up Against Deforestation and Rights Violations
The potential IFC loan was earmarked to finance an animal feed mill in Três Corações, Minas Gerais. However, Agronorte’s founder and majority shareholder, Gilmar Gonçalves Carvalho, has faced over a decade of serious allegations regarding illegal deforestation and land conflicts on properties directly bordering the Apinajé Indigenous territory in Tocantins. These included a federal lawsuit brought by Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor's Office over roughly 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) of illegally cleared forest.
Apinajé leaders courageously mobilized to oppose the funding, warning that previous deforestation had already destroyed local biodiversity, polluted essential water springs, and threatened traditional medicines and livelihoods.
“Our greatest assets are the land, the water and the air. This territory is important not only for the Apinajé and Timbira people, but for the Cerrado and the Amazon. Having this funding removed is important because it does not empower this company to use those funds to finance conflict and deforestation.” - Apinajé Chief
Backed by the Stop Financing Factory Farming (S3F) coalition, which includes Sinergia Animal alongside allies such as the International Accountability Project and Friends of the Earth U.S. 109 civil society organizations, social movements, and researchers wrote directly to the IFC Board demanding the cancellation of the loan.
Alessandro Ramazzotti, International Accountability Project researcher and S3F Steering Committee member, said,
“This is a really significant development in the growing pushback against industrial livestock systems. Financing the expansion of feed production, particularly soy, can drive deforestation and land conflicts in places like Brazil’s fragile biomes. This decision evidences a widening recognition that development finance institutions cannot claim to be tackling poverty and climate change while bankrolling the industrial animal agriculture model that drives environmental degradation and social conflict. For years, these loans have moved forward on the basis that no one outside the boardroom was watching. That assumption is no longer safe.”
This victory is evidence of the power of collective action, as Jacqueline Guzmán, Global Corporate Engagement Director at Sinergia Animal explains.
“Indigenous communities stood up to protect their territory and their rights, and with the support of a global coalition, together we stopped a proposed IFC-financed project. This sets a powerful precedent: it shows that civil society pressure can change development finance decisions. But our work is far from over. We will keep telling banks and development finance institutions that public money must fund sustainable, ethical food systems that respect people, animals and the planet, not industrial projects that put them at risk.”
Canceling this loan is only a step in addressing a deeper problem across international finance institutions, according to Carolina Galvani, Executive Director of Sinergia Animal and S3F Steering Committee member,
“While this is a huge win, and a testament to what the Apinajé leaders and their allies have achieved, this is only the beginning. Countless Indigenous communities around the world are facing the same threat from public and private finance flowing to industrial animal agriculture operators and global animal feed producers with unresolved land conflicts, and no meaningful consent process behind them. Left unchecked, feed production that supports factory farming’s expansion has devastating effects on forests, water sources, animals, and the communities who have protected the land for generations. Every bank watching this decision should take note.”
Between 2020 and 2025 alone, the IFC approved 38 investments totaling around $2 billion in industrial meat, dairy, and feed corporations.
“We also call on other banks and funders to pay attention to the proper processes and rules before financing projects like this. Do not finance projects that bring conflict and threats to our territories. We need the Cerrado, the Amazon, the air and the water to survive.” — Representative, Association Wyty Catë
Call to Action: Stop the Next Bank Loan!
Even as the IFC steps back from Agronorte, it is currently considering a separate $100 million loan to Agrícola Alvorada, a Brazilian agribusiness involved in large-scale soy and corn production for animal feed and biofuels in the Amazon and Cerrado. This proposed investment raises near-identical threats of industrial agribusiness expansion into threatened ecosystems and Indigenous lands.
How You Can Help:
Sign the Petition: Demand that the IFC reject the proposed $100 million loan to Agrícola Alvorada and stop financing factory farming.
Amplify the Cause: Share this story to spread awareness about how public development finance impacts local communities, animals, and the planet.
Sign the petition here: https://stopfinancingfactoryfarming.com/alvorada-eng