In November 2022, JBS announced that it was bringing forward its deforestation-related targets, aiming to completely eliminate deforestation from its supply chain in the Amazon by 2025—including among indirect suppliers. However, this announcement came after the company faced criticism in 2021 for setting even more distant targets. It's worth recalling that JBS already had a commitment to zero deforestation in the Amazon, which should have been achieved by 2011.
JBS’s methane emissions exceed those of any other company in the global meat and dairy sector, according to a report by Changing Markets. It is estimated by the report that JBS’s emissions surpass the total methane emissions from cattle in France, Germany, Canada, and New Zealand combined, or amount to 55% of the emissions from cattle in the United States.
JBS admitted to purchasing 8,785 head of cattle from three ranches owned by Chaules Volban Pozzebon, following a complaint by Greenpeace Brasil, Repórter Brasil, and Unearthed. The rancher was arrested and initially sentenced to 99 years in prison for multiple crimes, including illegal logging, and is considered the country’s most prolific deforester. He was also convicted of using labor analogous to slavery on one of his properties. The purchases were registered as coming from another farm, also owned by Pozzebon, which had been cleared according to socio-environmental criteria.
An investigation by Repórter Brasil has shown that JBS has grain suppliers who produce in deforested areas of the Amazon and Cerrado. The investigation indicates that the company bought soy from farmers involved in deforestation in Mato Grosso to produce feed for its poultry farms. The study also traced sales from corn producers operating on irregular farms directly to JBS.
Cattle from the most deforested Indigenous land in Brazil supplied JBS, according to research by Repórter Brasil. The research indicates that animals raised on farms within the Apyterewa Indigenous Land in Pará were transferred to a second property with no environmental liabilities before being sold to the company. This practice, known as “cattle laundering,” allows animals with “dirty” origins to enter the market without being properly identified.
A technical analysis conducted by the Center for Climate Change Analysis (CCCA) shows that JBS’s meat supply to the Casino Group is linked to deforestation and violations of the rights of communities living within the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Land in Rondônia (RO). The study identifies deforestation within the supply chain of three JBS-controlled meatpacking plants, totaling approximately 50,000 hectares of cleared forest—an area five times the size of the city of Paris. The analysis supports a lawsuit seeking to hold the French group accountable for potential environmental damage and for violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples and traditional communities in Brazil.
A farm located within the Itacaiúnas National Forest, in southeastern Pará, was part of the JBS production chain, according to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The organisation indicates that the cattle were transferred to properties outside the protected area, which then supplied them directly to the company’s slaughterhouses.
A study by Global Witness revealed that flawed audits conducted by the Norwegian company DNV GL between 2016 and 2019 hid JBS’s true exposure to deforestation in the Amazon. According to the investigation, JBS continued purchasing cattle from 144 farms in Pará with previously identified irregularities, in violation of its agreement with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF). The study indicates that DNV GL later ceased auditing the company and claimed that limitations in the audit methodologies may have accounted for the discrepancies between the Global Witness findings and the audit results.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) found that JBS had a 32% non-compliance rate in the audit carried out in the state of Pará. This was the company’s worst performance in evaluations of the implementation of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct — an agreement between JBS, other meatpackers, and the MPF aimed at curbing deforestation in the Amazon region.
JBS agreed to pay R$5 million (approximately US$ 910,000 at that time) to a fund managed by the Pará Environment Secretariat after the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) found unsatisfactory results in audits of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct. The MPF noted that the company’s performance was inadequate in two rounds of audits conducted under the agreement, although JBS contested the audit methodology. As part of the settlement, the company also committed to auditing 100% of its cattle purchases in Pará and to opening two “green offices” in the state.
