Land System Change
Transgressed: land system change is among the seven boundaries breached in the 2025 Planetary Health Check.
Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
Why shareholder democracy is pivotal
FAO's Global Remote Sensing Survey attributes almost 90 percent of global deforestation to agricultural expansion, over half to cropland conversion and almost 40 percent to livestock grazing. The commodities driving that conversion are soy, beef, palm oil and pulp. They flow through a small set of listed traders, buyers and their financiers. Shareholder voting has already changed conduct at exactly these chokepoints. A Green Century proposal at Bunge won 98 percent support in 2021, and the company subsequently committed to 100 percent geospatial monitoring for soy and stronger traceability for indirect suppliers. Majority Action campaigned against ADM directors over the company's Brazilian soy deforestation exposure. As You Sow presses retailers on forest-risk commodities; in 2025 Costco agreed to require avocado suppliers to avoid illegally deforested land after an As You Sow shareholder proposal. The financing gap is equally addressable by owners, since Global Canopy's latest Forest 500 assessment finds 59 percent of assessed financial institutions still have no deforestation policy. If traders, consumer brands, and banks all excluded conversion from supply chains and loan books and lobbied for forest protection, the commodity-driven majority of land conversion would stop. Smallholder subsistence clearing and state enforcement lie outside the lever, so a residual share remains with governments, but owners can deliver most of this outcome.
How this was scoredPivotal
Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Planetary Health Check 2025, Planetary Boundaries Science Lab / Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 2025-09-24
- COP26: Agricultural expansion drives almost 90 percent of global deforestation, FAO, 2021-11-06
- Bunge to Strengthen No-Deforestation Efforts in the Amazon, Cerrado, Green Century Capital Management, 2024-04-29
- Notice of Exempt Solicitation: Majority Action regarding Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2022-04-15
- Most financial institutions still have no deforestation policy, Global Canopy, 2026-06-16
- As You Sow Commends Costco's Commitment to Address Deforestation Risks in Avocado Supply Chain, As You Sow, 2025-12-04
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Filed a 2025 proposal asking Costco for a due diligence protocol on illegal deforestation in its avocado supply chain and withdrew it after Costco committed to supplier requirements.
Filed an exempt solicitation urging ADM shareholders to vote against the CEO and lead director over the company's deforestation policy and unverified Brazilian soy sourcing.
Files no-deforestation proposals at food, retail and finance companies, winning majorities at Bunge, Bloomin' Brands, Procter & Gamble and Home Depot and filing at Tyson, Hormel, ADM, Morgan Stanley and Kraft Heinz.
Majority Votes on Deforestation Put Pressure on Industry Laggards, Proxy Preview, 2023-03
5 campaigns on record
Establish a due diligence protocol and disclose supplier due diligence to monitor illegal deforestation in the avocado supply chain.
Result: Withdrawn after agreement
Costco committed to require suppliers to avoid illegally deforested land, diversify sourcing away from high-deforestation regions, expand Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade certified products, engage Mexican suppliers on ProForest certification and conduct annual supply chain mapping and risk assessments.
Eliminate deforestation from the company's supply chains by 2025.
Result: 11.6 percent of independent shareholders in favor; the controlling family holds up to 70 percent of voting rights
Commit to eliminating deforestation from supply chains.
Result: 76 percent in favor at Bloomin' Brands and 64.6 percent at Home Depot
Majority Votes on Deforestation Put Pressure on Industry Laggards, Proxy Preview, 2023-03
Vote against CEO and Chair Juan Luciano and Lead Director Donald Felsinger at the May 5, 2022 annual meeting because ADM's deforestation policy lacks firm conversion commitments and cut-off dates and the company has no net zero commitment.
Result: not stated in source
Publish a report on P&G's efforts to eliminate deforestation and forest degradation from its supply chain, including wood pulp sourced from Canadian boreal forests, despite the board's recommendation to vote against it.
Result: 67% of shareholders voted in favor The proposal was precatory (advisory and non-binding).
we found no documented specific policy change at P&G directly attributed to this vote
P&G shareholders vote in landslide to address supply-chain deforestation, Mongabay
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Doughnut Economics's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.