According to OGlobo, Pilgrim’s Pride, a JBS company, was revealed as the largest donor to President Trump’s administration in a recent financial report, with a donation of US$5 million—more than any other company, including large technology and financial companies. The NGO Mighty Earth reported that this information was shared just days before JBS confirmed that the US SEC had approved its proposal to list its shares on the NYSE, despite NGOs warning investors that the company’s new structure would transfer 85% of voting control to the Batista family, seriously limiting the opportunities for minority shareholders to run the company, including on ESG issues.

According to an investigation by Global Witness, a single JBS supplier destroyed more than 1,200 hectares of jaguar habitat over 10 years in a protected area in Brazil called APA Meandros do Araguaia. The Global Witness report states that the farm fined was an indirect supplier of cattle to JBS, the world’s largest meat processing company, between 2019 and 2022. According to the organisation, this farm transported cattle to another unit of the group, which then sold to the company’s direct suppliers on at least two occasions.

JBS will likely fail to meet its flagship commitment to eliminate deforestation from its Amazon supply chain by the end of 2025, according to a new investigation by The Guardian, Repórter Brasil, and Unearthed, the investigative journalism unit of Greenpeace UK. The findings are based on dozens of interviews with ranchers within JBS’s extensive Amazon supply chain, as well as a current JBS employee. In the report, interviewees described a system “riddled with loopholes,” with most stating that achieving a fully traceable, deforestation-free supply chain by the end of this year is impossible to reach.

A poultry farm that supplied a unit of Seara Alimentos—a JBS Group company—kept a worker in conditions analogous to slavery, according to Repórter Brasil. Labor inspectors reported that the farm owner exploited the worker’s vulnerable situation by offering employment in exchange for only food and lodging.

RSPCA Australia has announced that the ‘RSPCA Approved’ certification for farmed Atlantic salmon, of the JBS subsidiary Huon Aquaculture, has been withdrawn following an initial temporary suspension and subsequent investigation.

As reported by the Bob Brown Foundation, footage recorded in southern Tasmania at factory farms of Huon Aquaculture – a JBS subsidiary -showed live fish being dumped into crates alongside piles of dead salmon, where they were sealed and left to suffocate. Additional footage captured rotting chunks of salmon escaping from the farm structures and dispersing into surrounding waters.

JBS reached an agreement with the Mato Grosso State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPMT) after polluting a watercourse in Lucas do Rio Verde by discharging untreated effluent from its cattle feedlot. According to the MPMT, the company was also fined by the State Secretariat for the Environment for operating without an environmental license and for discharging effluents without a permit to use water resources. As a result of the pollution, JBS will be required to pay R$200,000 (around US$ 35,000 at that time).

Greenpeace International has challenged JBS’s attempt to list on the New York Stock Exchange and relocate its corporate headquarters to the Netherlands, citing the company’s links to corruption, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and human rights violations. The organization’s legal team sent a letter to a Dutch notary firm, with a copy forwarded to Dutch regulatory authorities.

The Humane Society of the United States has filed a new request with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate JBS and Pilgrim’s Pride—a U.S. subsidiary of JBS—for alleged animal abuse.

Pilgrim’s Pride, a U.S. subsidiary of JBS, as described in the settlement, has agreed to pay USD 41.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by investors who accused the company of artificially inflating its share price through misleading statements. The shareholders alleged that the company concealed a widespread price-fixing scheme aimed at charging artificially high prices for chicken.

JBS’s Global Sustainability Director told Reuters that the company’s net-zero emissions by 2040 target was merely an “aspiration”, stating that “it was never a promise that JBS was going to make this happen.” In 2021, the company had announced this target as a “commitment” and a “promise,” but as the article revealed, Jason Weller clarified that it was not a formal commitment.

Ten workers were found in conditions analogous to slavery by labor inspectors at a JBS service provider in the town of Arvorezinha, in Rio Grande do Sul, according to the Labor Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público do Trabalho – MPT). The rescued workers were engaged in chicken picking—placing chickens into boxes and loading them onto trucks. According to the MPT, they were housed in precarious lodgings and had limited access to food.