Why lawmakers are trying to block trading on a meatpacking company

In recent weeks, lawmakers in the United States and the United Kingdom have sent letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission cautioning against the listing of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Trading on the world’s largest exchange would give JBS, which applied in July, access to more capital and enhance its credibility. But the lawmakers, along with environmental groups, argue that expanded capital would allow the company, responsible for much deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, to do even more harm.

“Dozens of journalistic and NGO reports have shown that JBS is linked to more destruction of forests and other ecosystems than any other company in Brazil. The company has made repeated claims that it will eliminate deforestation but has not taken meaningful steps to do so,” said the letter from 15 U.S. senators, released last week.

The U.S. letter, signed by Democrats and Republicans, comes days after a similar letter from 11 British lawmakers that said letting JBS raise capital from shareholders “contradicts global efforts of governments and businesses to take action to mitigate climate change” and to “preserve essential natural habitats.”

A spokesperson for the SEC, which has regulatory oversight of the NYSE, said that they don’t comment on individual filings. JBS and the NYSE did not respond to questions.

The dispute highlights the connection between finance and various drivers of climate change, such as deforestation. It also raises questions about gauging claims that a company is committed to improving its environmental record.

Two-thirds of Amazon deforestation results from conversion to pasture for livestock, according to the Brazilian government. JBS, which has the largest slaughter capacity in the region, buys thousands of cows raised illegally every year, according to audits by federal prosecutors.

In December, The Associated Press and Brazil’s Agência Pública revealed that Rondônia state is suing JBS for purchasing cattle raised illegally in a protected area that has been damaged to the point of near total destruction. According to court papers, the company accepted documents that showed cattle going straight to the slaughterhouse from land that is legally protected. The company has declined to comment.

JBS has pledged to make all cattle purchases traceable by 2025 and to reach net zero, or equalize all carbon emissions, by 2040.

In 2020, it created the JBS Fund For the Amazon. The goal is to finance “innovative, long-term initiatives that build on JBS S.A.’s legacy of conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon Biome,” according to an SEC filing.

In the three years since inception, the JBS Fund for The Amazon has provided $15 million to 20 projects, according to its website. The company has pledged to commit a total of $51 million to the fund through next year.

The initiatives include cocoa farming integrated with trees; managed fishing of pirarucu, a giant freshwater fish; and support for the Forest Peoples Connection, which has been installing Starlink internet units donated by Elon Musk's SpaceX in remote areas, such as Indigenous communities.

It also granted money to two U.S.-based nonprofits: Forest Trends, which supports handicrafts and Brazil nut production in Indigenous territories, and the Good Food Institute, which works to research local products from Amazon fungi to tucuma, a local palm tree.

Still, the contributions are tiny for the company. From 2021 through the last quarter of 2023, JBS net sales approached $209 billion, according to a company statement. That means the amount disbursed for environmental projects so far represents 0.007% of JBS’ net sales for the period.

The U.S. is the meatpacker’s largest market, with 51% of sales, followed by 27% in Brazil, where it employs about 270,000 people.

A previous attempt by JBS to join the New York Stock Exchange was thwarted amid a major corruption scandal in 2017 when the company admitted the bribery of hundreds of Brazilian politicians. In 2020, JBS paid the SEC $26.8 million for accounting irregularities at its U.S. subsidiary Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the largest poultry producers in the country.

As JBS’ current application is being considered, a prominent advisor who backed the sustainability fund is having second thoughts. Carlos Nobre is an Earth scientist and co-author of five reports for the International Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations’ top body on climate change.

Mr. Nobre, who sits on JBS’ board, said he has been disillusioned with the company’s launch of a project intended to support 3,500 small livestock-producing families in the Amazon. JBS Sustainability Director Liège Correia promoted the project at the COP28 in Dubai. At $20 million over the coming years, it is one of the fund’s biggest.

“I only joined the fund because I was assured there would be no money for livestock. Now they changed their minds,” he said in an interview with the AP.

Supporting small cattle ranchers to increase their productivity helps to preserve the Amazon, according to Andrea Azevedo, who directs the fund and helped create the project, known as TOGETHER.

“We have done tests and seen that the fund can work with cleared areas, too. Because if you take good care of these areas, you prevent people cutting down more forest,” Ms. Azevedo told the AP. “We need to stop Amazon deforestation altogether, that’s a fact.”

Ms. Azevedo worked most of her career with environmental groups and said she respects Mr. Nobre’s position, but other board members agreed with the fund in supporting cattle ranching. It’s a place for experimentation, independent of JBS business strategy, she said.

Ms. Azevedo said the meat giant’s efforts to improve its environmental record are genuine. For example, it is trying to identify cattle suppliers who conceal the illegal origin of their animals and opening “green offices” to provide technical assistance in compliance with environmental legislation.

Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth, one of the groups pushing for the SEC to deny the application, said it’s too big of a risk.

“If JBS gains access to billions of dollars to expand its industrial meat operations, it would bring more deforestation, more market manipulation, more human rights abuses and more outsized climate pollution,” he said. “The SEC should not allow this IPO to proceed.”

This story was reported by The Associated Press.