2015 – Cooking the Planet

Serious accidents

JBS has been the target of several labor lawsuits by Brazil’s Labor Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público do Trabalho – MPT) over a lack of safety and accidents that occurred in its meatpacking plants, according to Repórter Brasil. The report states that one worker had his arm caught in a machine during cleaning operations in Mato Grosso do Sul state, another had his hand severed in a pig grinder in Paraná state, and a mechanic died after falling into a grinding machine in São Paulo.

Cattle of the Amazon’s biggest deforester

Repórter Brasil revealed that JBS bought cattle from the mother of Ezequiel Antônio Castanha, who was arrested by the Brazilian Federal Police on charges of being the most prolific Amazon deforester of all time. According to the report, prior to these sales, in February 2013, Ezequiel’s father, Onério Castanha, transferred 1,000 head of cattle registered in his name to Cirineide, Ezequiel’s mother. As stated by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF), father and son were part of a criminal network that invaded public lands, deforested and set fire to the areas to form pastures, and then sold the land as farms along the BR-163 highway.