São Paulo, Brazil, Meat giant JBS was forced to temporarily halt its annual shareholder meeting following interruptions by Greenpeace Brazil activists protesting the company’s role in environmental destruction and climate breakdown.

Cristiane Mazzetti, Campaigner, Greenpeace Brasil said: “We took action today because JBS and its rapacious appetite for profit represents everything wrong with industrial agriculture. Its supply chain keeps fuelling deforestation in vital ecosystems like the Amazon and its colossal emissions – particularly methane – rival even those of some fossil fuel companies.” 

“JBS’s meat empire was built on broken promises, environmental destruction and many corruption scandals. It shouldn’t be rewarded with a New York Stock Exchange listing and offshoring to the Netherlands that will line the pockets of its billionaire bosses and fund a global expansion that will help tip the planet deeper into climate chaos. Companies like JBS have no place on the public markets.”

The activists were forcibly removed from the Sao Paulo headquarters of JBS,  the world’s largest meat company, after interrupting a shareholder presentation by displaying hand banners reading ‘#RespectTheAmazon’ and ‘JBS: Your Profit, Our Extinction’ in Portuguese.

A further ten activists protested at the entrance to the building, with some handcuffing themselves to the railings. Others unveiled a large banner reading ‘JBS profits, forests burn’, a reference both to the company’s links to deforestation in the Amazon and industrial agriculture’s outsized contribution to climate change.A giant 1200m² banner bearing the same message was installed by Greenpeace Brazil climbers upon the roof of an adjacent JBS building. 

Two of the activists impersonated billionaire JBS bosses Joesley and Wesley Batista, whose involvement in a string of high-profile corruption scandals are well established. An online dossier documenting JBS’ long history of broken promises, and allegations of environmental and human rights abuses and political corruption was published today by Greenpeace Brasil. 

As events unfolded in Brazil, protesters targeted JBS and JBS subsidiary buildings and products in several European countries, including in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy.

Mazzetti continued: “We are calling for JBS’ listing to be stopped and for the Netherlands’ regulator – Bureau Financieel Toezicht – to step up. We urgently need governments to hold industrial agriculture to account for the damage it’s causing around the world, so we can stop this beef behemoth in its tracks.”

The protest comes days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission greenlit an application by JBS to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange.[1] The listing is paired with a restructure that relocates JBS’ parent company from Brazil to the Netherlands. 

“The planned restructure would also increase the voting control of the billionaire Batista brothers from 48% to almost 85%, limiting the ability of minority shareholders to influence the company on environmental or human rights issues. Earlier this month, it was reported that a $5 million USD donation by Pilgrim’s Pride, a poultry company owned by JBS, was the largest given to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund.[2]”

ENDS

Notes:

Photos and videos available from the Greenpeace Media Library.

Greenpeace and other campaign groups have warned that listing on the US market will help JBS fund a global expansion that will supercharge global emissions and threaten vital ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest.[3] 

In early February, Greenpeace International’s lawyers issued a legal letter to Dutch notary firm Loyens & Loeff, JBS’s notaries in the Netherlands, urging it to take immediate action to assess whether providing legal services to JBS in support of its planned NL restructure and NYSE listing is in accordance with its professional duties, due to JBS’s links to environmental destruction, corruption and human rights abuses. Greenpeace International also alerted the Dutch notary regulator, Bureau Financieel Toezicht (BFT). 

A recent investigation by Unearthed, Repórter Brasil and the Guardian found that JBS will fail to meet its flagship target to eradicate deforestation from its vast Amazon supply chain by the end of this year, while in early 2025 sustainability chief Jason Weller cast doubt on the company’s pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2040.[4][5]

Greenpeace Brasil report ‘JBS: Cooking the Planet’ is available online or as a PDF.

[1] JBS, ‘JBS Completes SEC Registration and Calls Shareholders’ Meeting to Vote on Dual Listing’, 23 April 2025

[2] Mother Jones, ‘Corporate Chiefs Gave Trump’s Inaugural Committee $250 Million. Benefits Abound’, 18 April 2025

[3] Global Witness, ‘JBS S.A. Dual Listing on New York Stock Exchange: A collective warning of risks to people, planet and investors’, 2 October 2024

[4] Unearthed, ‘JBS is likely to fail to deliver on its Amazon deforestation promise, ranchers say’, 17 April 2025

[5] Reuters, ‘Brazilian meatpacker JBS says net-zero emissions pledge was ‘never a promise’, 15 January 2025

Contacts:

Brazil time zone: Lais Modelli, Press Coordinator, Greenpeace Brazil, +55 14 98127 9058, [email protected] 

Europe time zone: Joe Evans, Global Comms Lead, Big Agriculture, Greenpeace UK, +44 7890 595387 , [email protected] 

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]