JBS S.A.
Profile
JBS, the largest meat processing company in the world, was founded by José Batista Sobrinho, a rancher in Anápolis, Brazil, in 1953. The Meat Atlas, a non-profit publication that tracks the industry, estimates that JBS slaughters 42 million chickens, 170,000 cattle and 350,000 pigs every single week. JBS has featured at the top of the list of companies linked to environmental destruction in the Amazon rainforest. Multiple reports from NGOs like Amnesty and Greenpeace have repeatedly linked JBS to farmers and ranchers who have been engaged in widespread deforestation. The conglomerate has also been accused of corruption, bribery, and price-fixing in both Brazil in the U.S. In 2017, Joesley and Wesley Batista, two major shareholders of JBS, admitted to spending US$129 million to bribe nearly 1,900 politicians in Brazil in recent years, and agreed to pay a US$3.2 billion fine.
Frozen processed foods, meat
Violations
| Top 5 Offense Groups (Groups Defined) | Penalty Total | Number of Records |
|---|---|---|
| competition-related offenses | $135,206,572 | 6 |
| employment-related offenses | $32,703,299 | 36 |
| environment-related offenses | $5,591,521 | 59 |
| safety-related offenses | $2,679,390 | 143 |
(April 11, 2022)
Stories
NY attorney general sues world's largest beef producer over methane emissions, climate commitments
NY AG says company's net zero goals aren't feasible considering its high carbon footprint
JBS fires indigenous worker in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, for reporting precarious company buses, says union
Veículo contratado pela empresa tem sérios problemas mecânicos e coloca em risco trabalhadores da terra indígena Nioaque, diz denúncia de sindicato encaminhada ao Ministério Público do Trabalho; empresa afirma que demissão foi por “questões profissionais”
JBS tries to 'clean up' history of environmental violations to enter the New York Stock Exchange
The world's largest protein producer has been trying to go public in the United States for years, but corruption scandals have delayed plans. Now, the company is betting on an image overhau
Auditorias revelam irregularidades da JBS em quatro estados da Amazônia
MPF avaliou origem do gado abatido por frigoríficos da região e concluiu que gigante da carne foi uma das piores empresas no Pará, além de apresentar problemas em Rondônia, Acre e Mato Grosso
JBS Hires Former USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety as Global Head of Food Safety and Quality Assurance
The revolving door that allows the deck to be stacked against family farm agriculture at every step of the game continues. JBS announced they have hired former U.S.
JBS: A Story of Corruption, Deforestation and Exploitation
A história da JBS é um reflexo da história do Brasil no século 21: nos primeiros anos, a empresa, no ramo da carne, e o país cresceram.
JBS USA: Behind America’s Leading Meat Processor
JBS USA is a leading beef and pork processor in America, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brazilian company JBS S.A., the largest beef and pork producer in the world by sales. Its size comes at a cost to the environment, the animals, and human health.
JBS: The Brazilian butchers who took over the world
If you eat meat, you probably buy products made by one Brazilian company. A company with such power it can openly admit to having bribed more than 1,000 politicians and continue to grow despite scandal after scandal. And you’ve probably never heard of it.
- The Boys From Brazil: How JBS became the world's largest meat company – and wrecked the climate to do it by Mighty Earth (2022)
- Why Not: how the JBS brothers Joesley and Wesley turned a butcher shop in Goiás into the world's largest meat company, corrupted hundreds of politicians and almost got away with it by Raquel Landim (2019)
- Traitors of the homeland: The bait of the Batista brothers at JBS by Claudio Tognolli (2019)
- Name the bulls: The story of the JBS swindles by Bernardino Coelho da Silva and Claudio Tognollo (2018)
- The BNDES' black box: How public money supplied Cuba, Venezuela, Angola and JBS USA by Bernardino Coelho da Silva and Claudio Tognollo (2018)
Activism
Union democracy: 81% of JBS members vote in favor of new union contract
United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union | February 5, 2022
After three days of voting, an overwhelming 81% of JBS union members have voted to accept the Company’s offer of settlement and ratify a new union contract.
Drop JBS Campaign
Feedback, Greenpeace UK, Mighty Earth and BankTrack | 2021
JBS’s latest green PR spin can’t change the facts: the company is destroying Brazilian forests, savannahs and wetlands. Supermarkets and banks can stop this. JBS gets away with it because retailers and banks are ignoring the company’s environmental destruction, criminal behaviour and corruption scandals.
Workers protest $15,615 federal fine for JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley where coronavirus killed six
Pattie Nieberg | The Colorado Sun | September 17, 2020
A union representing workers at a Colorado meatpacking plant where six workers died of COVID-19 and hundreds more were infected staged a protest Wednesday, claiming that federal officials should have fined the company more for its alleged failure to provide safe working conditions.
Unions demand R$ 200,000 for every JBS employee contaminated with Covid-19
Fernanda Brigatti | Folha de São Paulo | July 17, 2020
Trabalhadores da JBS em Dourados (MS) entraram com ação na Justiça do Trabalho em que pedem indenizações individuais de R$ 200 mil para cada funcionário que tenha sido contaminado pela Covid-19 e outros R$ 100 mil para todos os demais que ficaram expostos à contaminação.
Animal Rights Activists Protest JBS Slaughtering Animals, Stand In Solidarity With Employees
Jackie Harris | Utah Public Radio | June 26, 2020
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant in Hyrum, animal rights activists have used the situation as an opportunity to protest.
Union representing JBS workers files complaints against meatpacking facility
Joe Vaccarelli | The Denver Channel | July 15, 2020
The union that represents more than 3,000 meat packing employees at JBS in Greeley has filed formal complaints against the company regarding working conditions and directly lobbying employees during contract negotiations.
- Movimento de Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias de Alimentos do Estado de Rondônia
- Amazon Watch
- De Olho nos Ruralistas
- Observatório do Clima
- Repórter Brasil
- Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil
- Amazônia Real
- Global Witness
- Greenpeace Brazil
- United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias de Laticínios e Alimentação de São Paulo
- United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
- PETA
- Amnesty International
- Associação o Eco
- Forests and Finance
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias de Laticínios e Alimentação de São Paulo
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias da Alimentação de Criciúma e Região (Sintiacr)
- Sindicato dos trabalhadores na Industria de Antefatos e de Curtimento de Couros e Peles do Oeste e Sudoeste do Estado de São Paulo
- Sindicarne – Sindicato das Indústrias de Carnes e Derivados no Estado de Goiás
- Rainforest Action Network
- Bank Track
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores das Indústrias de Carnes e Aves de Sidrolândia (Sindaves)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias de Alimentação de Montenegro
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores na Alimentação, Frigoríficos, do Álcool e de Refinação de Açúcar nos Municípios de Tangará da Serra e Região (Sintiaal)
& Lawsuits
JBS reaches 'icebreaker' settlement of beef price-fixing claims
Jonathan Stempel | Reuters | February 2, 2022
JBS SA (JBSS3.SA) agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle litigation accusing meat-packing companies of conspiring to limit supply in the $63 billion-a-year U.S. beef market in order to inflate prices and boost profit.
US and European politicians call for investigation into JBS
Poder 360 | January 5, 2022
Três legisladores dos Estados Unidos, Reino Unido e Europa pediram uma investigação das práticas comerciais da companhia de carnes, JBS.
The Brazilian Federal Police Opens an Investigation into Payments of R$ 9 million from JBS to Former Bolsonaro Lawyer Frederick Wassef
Poder360 | October 26, 2020
A Polícia Federal abriu 1 inquérito para apurar movimentações financeiras de Frederick Wassef, ex-advogado do senador Flávio Bolsonaro (Republicanos-RJ) e de seu pai, o presidente Jair Bolsonaro. A investigação se baseia em documento de inteligência do Coaf (Conselho de Controle de Atividades Financeiras) produzido em julho deste ano.
SEC Charges Brazilian Meat Producers With FCPA Violations
SEC | October 14, 2020
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Brazilian nationals Joesley Batista and Wesley Batista and their companies J&F Investimentos S.A. and JBS S.A., a global meat and protein producer, have agreed to pay nearly $27 million to resolve charges arising out of an extensive bribery scheme that took place over multiple years.
Bolsonaro administration paid BRL 47 million to JBS to buy meat, according to magazine
UOL | August 23, 2020
A JBS recebeu R$ 47 milhões do governo Jair Bolsonaro (sem partido) para fornecer carne aos militares, segundo a revista Crusoé. De acordo com a publicação, o cardápio contratado inclui peças de picanha, maminha e filé mignon.
Brazil meat-packing giant JBS to pay record $3.2bn corruption fine
BBC News Brazil | May 31, 2017
The pair, who resigned from their board positions at the company last week, say they spent 600m real to bribe nearly 1,900 politicians in recent years.
Environmental Impacts
Feds Find 6 Cows Shot Multiple Times at JBS; PETA Seeks Investigation
PETA | March 3, 2022
After new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) documents revealed that six cows had been repeatedly shot in the head—leaving them still conscious and in severe pain, as some of them looked or even jumped around after the first shot—at the JBS slaughterhouse near Plainwell, PETA sent a letter today to Allegan County Prosecuting Attorney Myrene Kay Koch asking her to investigate...
Brazil's JBS bought 301,000 cattle from 'irregular' farms in the Amazon, audit finds
Ana Mano | Reuters | October 7, 2021
Nearly a third of the cattle bought by JBS SA in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para came from ranches with “irregularities” such as illegal deforestation, prosecutors found in a 2020 audit of the world’s largest meatpacker released on Thursday.
Brazil's JBS accused of violating Amazon rainforest protection laws
Anthony Boadle | Reuters | March 31, 2021
The world’s largest meatpacker, Brazil’s JBS SA, has for years knowingly bought cattle that were raised on illegally deforested land, turning a blind eye to regulations meant to protect the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s environmental regulator has alleged.
Revealed: new evidence links Brazil meat giant JBS to Amazon deforestation
André Campos, Andrew Wasley, Alexandra Heal, Dom Phillips and Piero Locatelli | The Guardian | July 27, 2020
New evidence appears to connect JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, to cattle supplied from a farm in the Brazilian Amazon which is under sanction for illegal deforestation.
Brazil: Cattle illegally grazed in the Amazon found in supply chain of leading meat-packer JBS
Amnesty International | July 15, 2020
Cattle illegally grazed in protected areas of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have entered the supply chain of the world’s largest meat-packer, JBS, Amnesty International said today in a 69-page report, From forest to farmland.
JBS is destroying the Amazon
Jaydee Hanson and Julia Ranney | The Ecologist | March 30, 2020
Something strange is afoot in the US beef industry. The US is technically the world’s largest beef producer, but meatpacking companies from Brazil, the second largest country-of-origin, are consolidating the industry.
Greeley JBS Meat-Processing Plant Allegedly Violated The Clean Water Act For 5 Years
Taylor Allen | Colorado Public Radio | November 21, 2019
Advocacy groups sued JBS USA’s meat-processing plant for how it’s discharging its water into a Greeley stream, but now are in discussions over a settlement
& Relations
US Department of Labor Cites JBS Foods Inc. For Repeated Safety Failures After Worker’s Death at Swift Beef’s Colorado Facility
US Department of Labor | September 28, 2021
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited JBS Foods Inc. – one of the nation’s largest meat and pork suppliers – again, for exposing employees to safety hazards at its Greeley facilities, this time following the death of a worker who was installing a paddlewheel.
JBS ignored reports of poisoning that ended up with 25 employees at the hospital in Santa Catarina
Marcos Hermanson Pomar | The Intercept Brazil | April 8, 2021
A JBS foi alertada com uma semana de antecedência sobre funcionários intoxicados na unidade de Nova Veneza, no interior de Santa Catarina – mas ignorou os avisos até 25 colaboradores da unidade terem sido hospitalizados.
Neither investigation nor funeral: the contaminated workers that JBS insisted on ignoring
Marcos Hermanson Pomar | O Joio e o Trigo | March 2, 2021
Funcionária grávida contraiu a brucelose, teve parto prematuro e perdeu a criança logo depois. Animais sem vacinação, falta de equipamentos de proteção e tentativas de culpar os funcionários: um passo a passo das estratégias da maior produtora de carne do mundo.
The JBS meat grinder in Brazil: 7 work accidents a day
Marcos Hermanson Pomar | O Joio e o Trigo | December 12, 2020
Com receita líquida global de R$ 204 bilhões em 2019, a empresa goiana JBS – fundada em 1953, na cidade de Anápolis – é a quarta maior empresa do ramo de alimentos no planeta.
EEOC says JBS violated Muslim worker rights-report
Reuters | September 5, 2009
A federal panel has ruled that the U.S. arm of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS SA JBSS3.SA violated the civil rights of more than 100 Somali Muslim workers who were fired last year after a walkout over a dispute about prayer breaks, according to newspaper reports.
COVID-19
Special | Deaths, long-term effects and exhausting work: the trail of Covid-19 in large slaughterhouses
Renan Xavier, Vanessa Ramos and Daniel Giovanaz | Brasil de Fato | November 15, 2021
Dez empresas se comprometeram a adotar normas mais seguras de funcionamento. Entre as grandes do setor, a JBS foi a única a não firmar as medidas propostas pelo MPT e a primeira condenada por dano moral coletivo na pandemia... A JBS foi condenada a pagar R$ 20 milhões pelos danos causados em suas instalações.
Covid cases and deaths grossly underestimated among meatpackers, House investigation finds
Taylor Telford | Washington Post | October 27, 2021
At least 59,000 workers at Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — companies that control the lion’s share of the U.S. meat market — were infected with the coronavirus during the pandemic’s first year, according to a report the subcommittee released Wednesday on its findings.
JBS' Workers Paid the Ultimate Price, While Profits Surged
Jessica Carey-Webb and David Wallinga | National Resources Defense Council | May 25, 2021
As an industry, meatpackers seem to operate according to their own set of rules, which may lead to reprehensible and sometimes deadly consequences. Among its global peers JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company, is exceptional.
The contamination of the Indigenous community in Dourados, Brazil, began at a JBS slaughterhouse
Rafael Oliveira | Agência Pública | June 10, 2020
Desde que o primeiro caso indígena foi registrado, o número de infectados do município, que era de 21 pessoas, teve um aumento de mais de 3.500%.
JBS sued over alleged violation of Brazil indigenous rights during pandemic
Reuters | June 4, 2020
Meatpacker JBS SA is being sued for alleged violation of indigenous workers’ rights after firing 40 members of the Kaingang tribe from a plant in southern Brazil, according to a court document.
Financials
Netherlands-based BankTrack tracks the involvement of commercial banks in financing business sectors and specific activities with a negative impact on people and planet.
Click here for the latest list.
Political Influence
Open Secrets - Tracks corporate lobbying of US politicians.
OpenSecrets.org Profile of JBS
Politicians in São José dos Campos received funding from JBS
Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos | May 29, 2017
A JBS, empresa pivô do escândalo que abala o país, doou mais de R$ 550 mil a 19 candidatos da região, ligados a nove partidos, nas eleições de 2014. Apesar de terem sido declaradas à Justiça Eleitoral, as doações deixam claro como as empresas agem para garantir seus interesses junto ao poder público.
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti profile of JBS
& Evasion
Tereza Cristina Gave Tax Incentives to JBS When She Was State Secretary
Congresso em Foco | November 18, 2018
Indicada a futura ministra da Agricultura no governo do presidente eleito, Jair Bolsonaro, a deputada Tereza Cristina (DEM-MS) concedeu incentivos fiscais à empresa JBS na mesma época em que arrendou propriedade ao grupo.
Beef firm at centre of corruption scandal channelled $1.7bn through tax havens
Earthsight | August 29, 2018
The biggest companies involved in trading commodities driving deforestation in Brazil are channeling money through tax havens, inflating their profits and preventing greater scrutiny of their operations, according to a paper in Nature.
Brazil tax agency alleges fraud in 2009 JBS-Bertin merger
Reuters | Feb 28, 2016
Brazilian tax authorities allege that the 2009 merger of JBS SA and the Bertin Group, which created the world’s largest meatpacker, involved fraud that harmed minority shareholders, the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Sunday.
JBS wraps up Rivalea acquisition
Dean Best | Just Food | Jan 4, 2022
In a brief stock-exchange filing today (4 January), JBS said it had finalised a deal that had been scrutinised by Australia’s competition watchdog. “With this acquisition JBS strengthens its position in Australia, becoming the leader in pork processing in the country..."
Approval given for $500m takeover of Tasmanian salmon farmer by Brazilian meat processing giant
Royce Kurmelovs | The Guardian | Oct 25, 2021
Brazilian meat processing giant JBS has been cleared to take over Tasmanian salmon farmer Huon by the Foreign Investment Review Board in a move environmental groups fear will make it harder to regulate the local industry.
Beef giant JBS vows to go deforestation-free — 14 years from now
Aurora Solá | Mongabay News | April 6, 2021
JBS, the largest animal protein producer on Earth, made headlines last week with a commitment to achieve zero deforestation across its global supply chain by 2035 and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The Brazilian meatpacking company congratulated itself as “the first major company in its sector to set a net-zero target.”
Procurement
JBS contracts with the U.S. Federal Government (via USA Spending)