New Film about Cattle Feedlots in South America

Bovine meat from South America is sometimes marketed as a premium product in Europe—yet the production conditions behind it usually remain hidden. Our new film reveals the reality behind the meat often marketed as “High Quality Beef”—and documents conditions that are hardly compatible with expectations for animal welfare.

Between August 2025 and March 2026, our team conducted undercover investigations at 21 cattle feedlots in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The footage shows injured and sick animals, severe heat stress and a lack of shade, contaminated drinking water, diets unsuitable for the species, and cattle standing knee-deep in mud and excrement for days on end after rain. 

And these are not isolated cases: We found serious animal welfare problems at every single feedlot.

Our investigation has now resulted in a new film. It reveals what lies behind this so-called premium product: not idyllic pastures, but industrial intensive feedlots with thousands or even tens of thousands of animals crammed into extremely confined spaces.

Meat from these facilities is exported to Europe

Particularly alarming: The feedlots we documented are officially approved for export to the EU. Although the conditions observed there would not be accepted in Europe, meat from these facilities is permitted to be imported.

With the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay), import volumes would increase even further in the future—while there would still be a lack of binding animal welfare standards for imported products.

Our Demands

Our investigation shows: Animal suffering must not be a part of international trade agreements.

We demand: 

• a ban on imports of meat from farms that engage in animal cruelty,
• binding animal welfare standards for all imported animal products in the Mercosur agreement,
• no trade advantages for products produced under conditions that contradict fundamental EU animal welfare principles.

Film shows the truth about South American meat production

Our film shows what we documented during our months-long undercover investigation—and why political action is needed now.

Watch the film and help expose the truth about the so-called “high-quality” meat from Mercosur countries. Share the film with family and friends, and on social media. It is only thanks to the support of committed individuals that we can conduct such investigations and build political pressure for better animal welfare standards.