{"id":7606,"date":"2020-07-31T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/blog\/big-beef-you-may-not-recognize-the-name-but-this-bad-actors-meat-is-sold-everywhere-except-your-local-grass-fed-farmer\/"},"modified":"2020-07-31T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T15:40:00","slug":"big-beef-you-may-not-recognize-the-name-but-this-bad-actors-meat-is-sold-everywhere-except-your-local-grass-fed-farmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/big-beef-you-may-not-recognize-the-name-but-this-bad-actors-meat-is-sold-everywhere-except-your-local-grass-fed-farmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Beef: You May Not Recognize the Name. But This Bad Actor\u2019s Meat Is Sold Everywhere\u2014Except by Your Local Grass-Fed Farmer or Rancher."},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve never seen this company\u2019s name on a package of ground beef or steak. That\u2019s because the world\u2019s largest<\/a> <\/span> beef producer, JBS, doesn\u2019t sell beef under its own name. <\/span><\/p>\n

But U.S. consumers buy millions of pounds of JBS beef every year, under brand names like Cedar River Farms, Swift Black Angus, 5 Star Reserve and others, in stores like Costco, Walmart and Kroger, to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consumers also unknowingly support JBS when they buy burgers at fast food chains like McDonald\u2019s and Burger King, and at other restaurants supplied by the meat giant. <\/span><\/p>\n

JBS isupplies Sysco, the world\u2019s largest food distributor, which distributes to hundreds of  restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and hotels. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sysco, in turn, wholesales JBS meat and other food products to Aramark and Sodexo, food distribution companies that in turn supply institutions like schools, hospitals, government agencies, prisons and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

JBS is big. In fact it\u2019s the biggest of the world\u2019s Big Meat<\/a> <\/span>companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

JBS also has some big problems. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to this July 2019 report<\/a> <\/span> by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to scandals, you can take your pick\u2014during its rapid rise to become the world\u2019s 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\u2014$3.2bn\u2014after admitting bribing hundreds of politicians. Yet the company\u2019s products remain on supermarket shelves across the world, and its global dominance only looks set to grow further.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, the Bureau reported<\/a> <\/span>on yet another JBS scandal, a tale of \u201cskinny cows\u201d and fat lies. A story that highlights the meat giant\u2019s role in burning down<\/a> the Amazon<\/a> Rainforest, the \u201clungs of the planet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Given how far JBS\u2019s tentacles reach, you may think it\u2019s impossible to avoid supporting the company\u2014no matter how corrupt, exploitative and destructive its practices. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But you can <\/em>boycott<\/a> this Big Meat company. <\/em>By thinking small. By making it a point to find out where your steak and burgers come from. And by aligning your meat purchase with your values.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Burning the Amazon for \u2018cheap\u2019 burgers<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are plenty of reasons<\/a> <\/span>to #BoycottBigMeat<\/a>, <\/span>including these two: to protect wildlife and plant biodiversity, and to protect against climate stability.<\/span><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s report<\/a> <\/span>by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism uncovers how JBS fails in both of those categories. <\/span><\/p>\n

The report also reveals the hypocrisy of the meat giant\u2019s claims<\/a> <\/span> about believing that \u201csustainability involves continuously improving social responsibility, economic viability and environmental stewardship.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span> Mongabay<\/a>, a nonprofit environmental science and conservation news platform, since 1978, more than 289,000 square miles of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. Much of that destruction is attributed to industrial agriculture. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the 2000s, Mongabay reports, more than three-quarters of forest-clearing in the Amazon was for cattle-ranching.<\/span><\/p>\n

All that destruction of the \u201clungs of the planet\u201d wipes out critical<\/a> <\/span> plant and animal species, and contributes to global warming. According to<\/a> Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist working on the Amazon for more than half a century:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis biodiversity is important globally. Every species in this incredibly biodiverse system represents solutions to a set of biological challenges\u2014any one of which has transformative potential and could generate global human benefits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, the Washington Post reported<\/a> <\/span> on how fires in the Amazon were destroying biodiversity and leading to \u201ca clear spike in carbon monoxide emissions as well as planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, posing a threat to human health and aggravating global warming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, the Post reported<\/a> on record-breaking, \u201cblistering\u201d  temperatures in places like Baghdad and Phoenix, Arizona. The Post attributed the debilitating excessive heat to a ridge of high pressure anchored over the Middle East, drifting west over the Red Sea toward Egypt. But the report also noted:<\/span><\/p>\n

“While heat records can occur thanks solely to natural variability, they are disproportionately more likely to occur thanks to warming effects of climate change. Moreover, the human contribution of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere has knocked the earth\u2019s relative balance of cold-and-warm anomalies off-kilter, skewing the planet strongly hot.”<\/span><\/p>\n

JBS\u2019s \u2018skinny cow\u2019 laundering scheme<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

So what do the Amazon and global warming have to do with JBS and your burgers and steaks?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Yale School of Environment reports<\/a> <\/span> this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCattle ranching is the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, accounting for 80 percent of current deforestation rates. Amazon Brazil is home to approximately 200 million head of cattle, and is the largest exporter in the world, supplying about one quarter of the global market.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brazil-based JBS has long denied any company involvement in deforestation of the Amazon for cattle ranching, despite accusations<\/a> <\/span> to the contrary. According to this week\u2019s Bureau report:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJBS, like other major beef producers, says that it has a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to illegal deforestation and has introduced sophisticated monitoring systems for its direct suppliers. At every turn, the company has insisted that it is impossible to monitor its indirect suppliers because there are no publicly available records of livestock moving between farms at different stages of the rearing process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s hogwash, according to Delara Burkhardt, a German MEP, who told the Bureau:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBig companies\u2014like JBS\u2014with their big leverage on upstream suppliers could fix this, if they wanted to, or if they were required to do so by domestic or importing countries\u2019 laws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Either JBS doesn’t want to fix the problem. Or lawmakers don’t want to force the company to fix the problem. Or both.<\/span><\/p>\n

UK Parliament member Angus MacNeil told the Bureau:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll over Europe there is a cattle tracing system so that people know where calves are born and they can be traced through their lives. In Brazil this is a huge loophole. It is even a more serious issue than welfare and standards, as it is deforestation of the Amazon, the lungs of the earth are at stake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How does JBS exploit that loophole? The Bureau found evidence that JBS may have facilitated \u201ccattle laundering,\u201d a process by which livestock (referred to as \u201cskinny cows\u201d) from \u2018\u201cdirty\u201d farms linked to deforestation can end up being moved and mixed in with cattle from \u201cclean\u201d farms.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Bureau\u2019s report:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bureau has found evidence of JBS repeatedly promoting use of its own trucks for transporting cattle between indirect suppliers and direct suppliers. JBS executives promote the routes as ‘three-legged journeys’: picking up ‘skinny’ cattle at one farm, exchanging them for fattened cows at a second, and ending the journey at an abattoir.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the JBS customers linked<\/a> <\/span> to JBS\u2019s deforestation practices are: Walmart, Costco, Sysco, Restaurant Brands International (owner of Burger King, Popeye\u2019s and Tim Horton\u2019s) and Yum! (owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and others).<\/span><\/p>\n

JBS Is everywhere . . . except here<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

JBS\u2019s role in burning up the Amazon relates largely to the company\u2019s beef production. <\/span><\/p>\n

But JBS doesn\u2019t just sell beef. It\u2019s also the world\u2019s largest<\/a> <\/span>producer of chicken and lamb, and the third-largest producer of pork. <\/span><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s chicken is sold at retail under the Pilgrim\u2019s (formerly Pilgrim’s Pride) brand name at retail chains like Publix, Walmart, Costco, Kroger and Sam\u2019s Club. JBS also supplies chicken to KFC, Wendy\u2019s, Chick-fil-A and Burger King.<\/span><\/p>\n

As already noted, the JBS name doesn\u2019t appear on any of its beef, poultry, lamb or pork. But the company\u2019s meat production practices speak to every one of the 13 reasons<\/a> <\/span>we cite for boycotting Big Meat. <\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, according to an April 2020 Animal Welfare Institute report<\/a>, <\/span> JBS operates seven of the 10 worst large livestock slaughter plants in the country. The report said that In total, these seven JBS-owned plants had 132 incidents, including 18 violations classified as \u201cegregious.\u201d The violations included multiple incidents of failing to stun animals before shackling and hanging them to be dismembered, likely causing the animals excruciating pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for human health, many JBS brands are produced with antibiotics<\/a>, <\/span> and the company has had to recall beef products for everything from salmonella outbreaks<\/a>, <\/span> to plastic contamination<\/a>, <\/span> to just this week, failing to follow inspection <\/a><\/span> protocols<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do consumers steer clear of JBS products, when the company\u2019s name is nowhere to be found? But the products are everywhere?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few tips:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Think small. Buy from a trusted organic regenerative farmer or rancher, either one you know personally, or one that sells online. (Here\u2019s a directory to help you find them<\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Don’t eat at fast-food chains. Period. Almost all of them source from JBS or one of the other Big Meat companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Ask before you order. If you dine out at other restaurants, ask your server where the burgers and steaks on their menu come from. If they can\u2019t tell you, order something else.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Align your meat purchasing with your personal values. If you care about the environment, if you care about food chain workers, if animal welfare matters to you, don\u2019t buy meat\u2014any meat, including poultry, pork and lamb\u2014from anywhere other than a farmer or rancher whose practices protect the things you care about.<\/span><\/p>\n

It will take major policy reforms to achieve a total transformation of our highly centralized, large-scale industrial meat production to an environmentally, socially and economically just organic regenerative<\/a> <\/span>system that <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we support a Green New Deal<\/a>, <\/span> and why we\u2019re asking consumers to sign our petition<\/a> <\/span> demanding a total ban on new factory farms.<\/span><\/p>\n

But policy reform has to go hand-in-hand with consumer demand. And consumers must demand better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Katherine Paul is associate director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA)<\/a>. To keep up with OCA news and alerts, sign up for our newsletter<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve never seen this company\u2019s name on a package of ground beef or steak. That\u2019s because the world\u2019s largest<\/a> <\/span> beef producer, JBS, doesn\u2019t sell beef under its own name. <\/span><\/p>\n

But U.S. consumers buy millions of pounds of JBS beef every year, under brand names like Cedar River Farms, Swift Black Angus, 5 Star Reserve and others, in stores like Costco, Walmart and Kroger, to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consumers also unknowingly support JBS when they buy burgers at fast food chains like McDonald\u2019s and Burger King, and at other restaurants supplied by the meat giant. <\/span><\/p>\n

JBS isupplies Sysco, the world\u2019s largest food distributor, which distributes to hundreds of  restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and hotels. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sysco, in turn, wholesales JBS meat and other food products to Aramark and Sodexo, food distribution companies that in turn supply institutions like schools, hospitals, government agencies, prisons and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

JBS is big. In fact it\u2019s the biggest of the world\u2019s Big Meat<\/a> <\/span>companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

JBS also has some big problems.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[999,1026],"tags":[19,3],"organicbytes":[],"countries":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBig Beef: You May Not Recognize the Name. 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That\u2019s because the world\u2019s largest beef producer, JBS, doesn\u2019t sell beef under its own name. But U.S. consumers buy millions of pounds of JBS beef every year, under brand names like Cedar River Farms, Swift Black Angus, 5 Star Reserve and others, in stores like Costco, Walmart and Kroger, to name a few.Consumers also unknowingly support JBS when they buy burgers at fast food chains like McDonald\u2019s and Burger King, and at other restaurants supplied by the meat giant. JBS isupplies Sysco, the world\u2019s largest food distributor, which distributes to hundreds of  restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and hotels. Sysco, in turn, wholesales JBS meat and other food products to Aramark and Sodexo, food distribution companies that in turn supply institutions like schools, hospitals, government agencies, prisons and more.JBS is big. 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That\u2019s because the world\u2019s largest beef producer, JBS, doesn\u2019t sell beef under its own name. But U.S. consumers buy millions of pounds of JBS beef every year, under brand names like Cedar River Farms, Swift Black Angus, 5 Star Reserve and others, in stores like Costco, Walmart and Kroger, to name a few.Consumers also unknowingly support JBS when they buy burgers at fast food chains like McDonald\u2019s and Burger King, and at other restaurants supplied by the meat giant. JBS isupplies Sysco, the world\u2019s largest food distributor, which distributes to hundreds of  restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and hotels. Sysco, in turn, wholesales JBS meat and other food products to Aramark and Sodexo, food distribution companies that in turn supply institutions like schools, hospitals, government agencies, prisons and more.JBS is big. In fact it\u2019s the biggest of the world\u2019s Big Meat companies.JBS also has some big problems.","og_url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/big-beef-you-may-not-recognize-the-name-but-this-bad-actors-meat-is-sold-everywhere-except-your-local-grass-fed-farmer\/","og_site_name":"Organic Consumers","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/organicconsumers","article_published_time":"2020-07-31T15:40:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/jbs-bytes-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Katherine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@organicconsumer","twitter_site":"@organicconsumer","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katherine","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/big-beef-you-may-not-recognize-the-name-but-this-bad-actors-meat-is-sold-everywhere-except-your-local-grass-fed-farmer\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/big-beef-you-may-not-recognize-the-name-but-this-bad-actors-meat-is-sold-everywhere-except-your-local-grass-fed-farmer\/"},"author":{"name":"Katherine","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d4dc4d4337416e6925eddebdbfe8e49d"},"headline":"Big Beef: You May Not Recognize the Name. 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