{"id":60506,"date":"2026-04-30T08:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=60506"},"modified":"2026-04-30T08:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:02:51","slug":"the-2-5-billion-secret-what-harm-the-worlds-largest-meat-company-is-hiding-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/blog\/60506\/the-2-5-billion-secret-what-harm-the-worlds-largest-meat-company-is-hiding-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"The $2.5 billion secret: what harm the world’s largest meat company is hiding in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSupport landmark change to African law across the continent\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This is your moment to be part of history.\n\nLet\u2019s tell the African Court to put climate justice into law.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Get Involved\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t\n

When we talk about the climate crisis, we know Shell’s name well, from the Niger Delta to the Cape. “Fossil fuel giants have become synonymous with planetary destruction. But there is another titan of industry that has also been linked to massive environmental damage for decades, one most people have never heard of.<\/p>\n\n

Its name is JBS. For a company of this size, that obscurity is remarkable.<\/p>\n\n

JBS is a Dutch corporation founded in Brazil and the world’s largest meat producer. Last year, it recorded a revenue of US$86.2 billion<\/a>, operating processing facilities across 25 countries on five continents. It owns dozens of brands that appear on supermarket shelves worldwide, often without the JBS name in sight. You may be eating their products without ever knowing it. <\/p>\n\n

Behind this empire are two brothers: Joesley and Wesley Batista. Their personal story is central to understanding what this company truly is. Their meat empire\u2019s rapid expansion went hand-in-glove with admitted corruption<\/a> by executives at the highest level. As of 2024, JBS still carried an estimated US$6.4 billion in active legal liabilities <\/a>for fraud and corruption,  a figure that has nearly tripled in less than two years.<\/p>\n\n

We know too well what can happen when a corporation buys its way into a country. This is that company.<\/p>\n\n

A $2.5 billion corporate secret<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Last year, JBS signed a Memorandum of Understanding<\/a> with the Nigerian government to build six massive meat-processing plants across the country, three for poultry, two for beef, and one for pork. The price tag? US$2.5 billion. This is part of a larger,  US$6 billion global expansion, and Nigeria is its centrepiece.<\/p>\n\n

Reportedly, 1.2 million hectares of land have been pledged<\/a> to the project in Niger State alone. An area nearly 15% of the entire state, committed to industrial farming. JBS says it is coming to solve “food insecurity.” They use words like “sustainable supply chains” and “local farmers”. The catch, as always with JBS, is what they are not telling us. JBS has failed to publish the agreement<\/a> it signed with the Nigerian government. It has not publicly released any environmental impact assessments or publicly published any human rights assessments. Nigerian civil society organisations formally submitted Freedom of Information requests for this basic information and to date they have received nothing beyond an acknowledgment of receipt. <\/p>\n\n

What this means for Nigeria and all of Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Nigeria’s pastoralist communities are under real pressure. Shrinking grazing corridors, land degradation, and resource-driven conflict are serious, genuine threats that demand urgent action. The response to a system under stress should be investment in reforming and strengthening it from within, not opening the door to a foreign corporation whose entry risks displacing the 20 million people whose livelihoods, cultural identity, and food sovereignty<\/a> depend on it. Bringing JBS in trades one problem for a potentially larger one: the transfer of food sovereignty from struggling communities to a foreign corporation accountable to shareholders, not to the people who depend on this land.<\/p>\n\n

The environmental cost of that trade-off could be severe. Industrial farming on JBS’s scale demands enormous quantities of land, water, and energy resources already stretched thin across Nigeria’s pastoral zones. It also generates massive methane emissions,  a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than CO\u2082 in the short term. JBS’s methane emissions <\/a>are already estimated to exceed the combined livestock emissions of France, Germany, Canada, and New Zealand combined.<\/p>\n\n

The risk would not stop at communities. Nigeria’s savannas are home to critically endangered West African lions, rare savanna elephants, and pangolins already among the world’s most trafficked animals<\/a>. Industrial agriculture at this scale is one of the leading drivers of habitat destruction globally,<\/a> In Niger State alone, where 1.2 million hectares have already been pledged<\/a> to this project, the land sits alongside Kainji Lake National Park, a critical stronghold for Nigeria’s remaining savanna biodiversity, including lions, elephants, leopards, and over 350 bird species. This extraordinary biodiversity cannot be considered immune. <\/p>\n\n

And who bears the cost when extractive industries expand into Africa? Not the shareholders whose bank accounts will fatten from profit. It is the communities whose land is at risk. The pastoralists whose livelihoods are threatened. The families whose water sources could be drained and polluted. What is called development here is, in practice, corporate profit.<\/p>\n\n

The Amazon Blueprint<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

If you want to know what JBS’s “development” looks like in practice, look at the Amazon.<\/p>\n\n

In 2009, JBS pledged<\/a> zero deforestation from its supply chains in the Amazon. For 15 years, independent investigations<\/a> repeatedly linked the company to “cattle laundering”, where suppliers move cattle from illegally deforested land through intermediary farms to clean its supply chain records. Scientists warn the Amazon is approaching an ecological tipping point<\/a>,  a threshold beyond which even small disturbances could trigger irreversible ecosystem collapse.. As recently as October 2024, JBS was fined by Brazilian authorities<\/a> for involvement in illegal deforestation fifteen years after making its pledge.<\/p>\n\n

The parallels with Nigeria are striking. The same promises of solving ‘food insecurity’ through ‘sustainable supply chains.’ The same absence of environmental assessments. The same insufficient regard for the people whose lives risk being upended.<\/p>\n\n

We cannot say we were not warned.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSupport landmark change to African law across the continent\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This is your moment to be part of history.\n\nLet\u2019s tell the African Court to put climate justice into law.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Get Involved\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t\n

The resistance is already rising<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Communities and civil society groups in Nigeria are not sitting quietly. They have already raised serious concerns, demanded transparency<\/a>, and called on their government to protect the land and livelihoods they depend on . Greenpeace Africa has escalated this fight by submitting a legal filing<\/a> to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the first of its kind on this scale. The submission argues that both governments and corporations have binding duties under the African Charter to prevent environmental harm, ensure public participation, and protect communities’ rights to information. It specifically names JBS’s expansion plans in Nigeria and argues that corporations must prevent climate harm, conduct full due diligence, disclose emissions data, adopt science-based targets, and provide remedy to communities harmed. This legal track could set a continent-wide precedent for holding multinational corporations accountable under African law. <\/p>\n\n

\"African
Greenpeace Africa submitted an amicus curiae brief before the African Court on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights (AfCHPR), arguing that climate destruction is a systematic, ongoing violation of the rights of people across the African continent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Africa contributes the least to the global climate crisis. We will not be treated as a sacrifice zone for a corporate empire built on bribes, corruption, and ecological destruction. JBS has no right to stay in the shadows. No right to turn Nigerian land into a profit machine for foreign billionaires without telling the people what it will cost them.<\/p>\n\n

Local communities in Nigeria are already rising up. Greenpeace Africa is demanding transparency. And we are inviting you, wherever you are on this continent and in the African diaspora  to join that demand.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSupport landmark change to African law across the continent\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This is your moment to be part of history.\n\nLet\u2019s tell the African Court to put climate justice into law.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Get Involved\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we talk about the climate crisis, we know Shell’s name well, from the Niger Delta to the Cape. “Fossil fuel giants have become synonymous with planetary destruction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":60507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[46,26,27,24,29,39,137],"p4-page-type":[126],"class_list":["post-60506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-greenpeaceafrica","tag-energy","tag-farming","tag-forests","tag-biodiversity","tag-socialjustice","tag-nigeria","p4-page-type-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60514,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60506\/revisions\/60514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60506"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=60506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}