JBS among meat firms linked to slavery-tainted ranches in Brazil
JBS among meat firms linked to slavery-tainted ranches in Brazil
Six meatpackers bought cattle from ranches that used slave labor, Reporter Brasil found
By Fabio Teixeira
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Brazilian meatpackers must clean up their supply chains, labor experts said on Tuesday, after an investigation showed six firms bought cattle from ranches that used slave labor.
Brazil's JBS, one of the world's largest meat processing firms, bought cattle from two ranches that later ended up on Brazil's "dirty list" of companies that employed slave labor, the anti-slavery rights group Reporter Brasil said this week.
JBS said it banned the two firms once they were on the dirty list, but it was unfair to expect JBS to stop working with any ranches facing allegations of slave labor from inspectors as those companies also had the right to defend their actions.
"Reporter Brasil is demanding JBS ... block producers based only on inspections (which) ... would be a disregard for that producer's right of defense before public authorities", JBS told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a statement.
More:
https://news.trust.org/item/20210105182738-3cvy6/
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This foreign meat company got U.S. tax money. Now it wants to conquer America.
President Trump delivers remarks in support of farmers and ranchers at the White House in May.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
By
Kimberly Kindy
November 7, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. CST
This story has been updated.Two men in cowboy hats stood behind President Trump in May as he announced a $16 billion agricultural bailout. Trump said the financial relief from his trade war with China would help American farmers, reinforcing an earlier tweet when the president said the funds would help “great Patriot Farmers.”
But not all beneficiaries of the taxpayer-funded program are American farmers or patriots. JBS, a Brazilian company that is the largest meat producer in the world, has received $78 million in government pork contracts funded with the bailout funds — more than any other U.S. pork producer.
JBS’s winning hand in securing a quarter of all of the pork bailout contracts is one example of the power a small number of multinational meat companies now hold in the United States. JBS has become a major player in the United States even as it faces price-fixing and other investigations from the federal government.
. . .
A dozen years ago, JBS did not own a single U.S. meat plant. Today, JBS and three other food companies control about 85 percent of beef production. JBS and Tyson Foods control about 40 percent of the poultry market. And JBS and three other companies control nearly 70 percent of the pork market.
JBS and the large multinational meat companies, including Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and Cargill, use their size and global presence to create efficiencies that enable them to produce a variety of quality foods at a lower price. But many agricultural economists and food marketing analysts say when so few companies control the market, they can drive smaller operators out of business, reducing competition and sometimes raising prices for consumers.
Such consolidation has been condemned by eight Democratic presidential candidates, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) being the most outspoken. She’s pledged to break up the larger food and meat companies because the companies can use their “economic power to spend unlimited sums of money electing and manipulating politicians” and because they are “leaving family farmers with fewer choices, thinner margins and less independence.”
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-foreign-meat-company-got-us-tax-money-now-it-wants-to-conquer-america/2019/11/04/854836ae-eae5-11e9-9306-47cb0324fd44_story.html
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APRIL 28, 2020 2:07 PM UPDATED 8 MONTHS AGO
Brazil's JBS praises Trump order to keep meat plants open
By Nayara Figueiredo
2 MIN READ
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned executive order to keep that country’s meat plants open will bring certainty to the sector, an executive for Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA said on Tuesday.
JBS Chief Financial Officer Guilherme Cavalcanti praised Trump’s decision in a live webcast, after saying the United States only has about 15 days of meat inventory.
Trump plans to issue the executive order on Tuesday, a senior administration official said. The five-page order is designed to give companies more liability protection in case employees catch the virus as a result of having to go to work.
JBS had already closed two U.S. beef plants after workers tested positive, but later reopened them, Cavalcanti said. The company still has one beef plant and one pork factory that remain closed, the CFO said.
Cavalcanti said that, JBS has idle capacity in Brazil and Australia that can be directed toward meat exports to the United States if necessary.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-outlook/brazils-jbs-praises-trump-order-to-keep-meat-plants-open-idUSKCN22A337
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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.
Meat is now the new commodity, controlled by just a handful of gigantic firms which together wield unprecedented control over global food production. The Bureau has been investigating the biggest of all: JBS, a Brazilian company which slaughters a staggering 13 million animals every single day and has annual revenue of $50bn.
When it comes to scandals, you can take your pick — during its rapid rise to become the world’s biggest meatpacker, JBS and its network of subsidiaries have been linked to allegations of high-level corruption, modern-day “slave labour” practices, illegal deforestation, animal welfare violations and major hygiene breaches. In 2017 its holding company agreed to pay one of the biggest fines in global corporate history — $3.2bn — after admitting bribing hundreds of politicians. Yet the company’s products remain on supermarket shelves across the world, and its global dominance only looks set to grow further.
More:
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2019-07-02/jbs-brazilian-butchers-took-over-the-world
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New Brazilian Class Action Targets Corrupt JBS in the Name of Democracy
January 14, 2020 OCM Staff
. . .
The litigation lays out the undisputed evidence that through bribing over 1,800 Brazilian politicians, the Batista brothers were able to take over U.S. Swift Food, U.S. Smithfield beef group, and Pilgrim’s Pride, launching their takeover of the U.S. meat processing industry and becoming the world’s leading meat processor.
The lawsuit demands the Batista brothers, JBS SA, J&F Investimentos, the Batista family’s holding company, restore to the public nearly a billion U.S. dollars of the Batista family’s ill-gotten gain.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have forked over yet another $10.8 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to the shady foreign firm. JBS has now received a whopping $100 million+ in taxpayer cash meant for struggling American farmers.
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Impact on Consumers
JBS’s historic pattern of corruption and underhanded dealings has not only allowed them to take over the beef industry but has resulted in putting U.S. consumers’ health and safety at risk. With JBS being a dominant force in the meat industry, it has the ability to artificially inflate the price consumers pay at the retail store, leaving consumers vulnerable to price gouging. Because the U.S. no longer requires mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling on beef, and the USDA allows imported meat to be falsely labeled “Product of the U.S.A.,” consumers are not able to choose to purchase from American farmers and ranchers instead.
More:
https://competitivemarkets.com/new-brazilian-class-action-targets-corrupt-jbs-in-the-name-of-democracy/
Also posted in LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142659715