You may know Greenpeace for our ships, our climbers, and our boots-on-the-ground defiance. But sometimes, what it takes to stop a giant is a piece of paper.
In the world of Dutch law, a Disclosure Letter is the first step towards legal action that could stop in their tracks the biggest known industrial meat expansion plans in the world. This is not a mere request. It is a piece of paper that has the power to fundamentally disrupt the destructive business model of the Big Ag giants.
That’s what we delivered this morning to JBS, the world’s largest meat company. They should have seen it coming.
Pollution, destruction, corruption… JBS has a LOT to answer for
JBS is a global powerhouse. But the growth of JBS’ meat empire went hand in hand with environmental destruction, colossal emissions, corruption scandals and reported human rights abuses, all in the absence of transparency. Through its supply chain relationships, JBS has been repeatedly linked to the devastation of the Amazon rainforest, the destruction of critical wildlife habitats, and to cattle grazed illegally on indigenous lands. Make no mistake: JBS is the new Shell. Their unchecked expansion isn’t “just business”, and has been a major contributor to climate crisis and ecological collapse.
But they might have just made a major tactical error.
Last year, JBS moved their headquarters from São Paulo to Amsterdam as part of their efforts to list shares on Wall Street. JBS was warned: “If you play on Dutch soil, you play by Dutch rules.” They thought moving to Europe would grant them corporate benefits. Instead, it gave Greenpeace Netherlands the legal standing to challenge their shadowy empire.
JBS: Keep your bloody business out of Africa
Today, JBS executives and wealthy shareholders gathered at the Sheraton Hotel in Amsterdam for their first Dutch shareholder meeting. But we didn’t leave them alone to celebrate their profits.
Activists from Greenpeace Netherlands disrupted the meeting, raining fake blood over the hotel entrance with a banner reading: ‘JBS: Keep Your Bloody Business Out of Africa’. Inside the eight-story atrium, we dropped the largest indoor banner in Greenpeace history featuring the faces of JBS’s billionaire majority shareholders, Joesley and Wesley Batista.
The activists entered the meeting room and Marieke Vellekoop, Executive Director at Greenpeace Netherlands, presented the request for information to JBS shareholders, which is the first step towards legal action against JBS’s expansion plans.
The action caused the shareholders’ meeting to be suspended.
The message to JBS is clear: We will not let you export your destructive business model to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Right now, JBS is plotting a catastrophic $6 billion global expansion, with a massive $2.5 billion earmarked for six meat-processing plants in Nigeria. This expansion threatens to drain vital water sources, spew massive industrial pollution, and generate enormous methane emissions – a blowtorch for climate change.
Yet, in Nigeria, there is no evidence that independent environmental or social impact assessments or consultations with communities have been conducted, and requests for critical information from Nigerian civil society have been ignored.
We cannot let them continue to operate behind a veil of secrecy. That is why Greenpeace Netherlands are demanding disclosure of key documents that we believe contain information that will allow us to challenge their expansion plans in the Dutch court. The ensuing litigation is likely to be the first climate case of this scale against the industrial meat sector.
Resistance against the destructive meat empire is rising
Around the world, resistance and solidarity is rising to stop the expansion of this destructive meat empire.
First, local communities and civil society groups in Nigeria are resisting on the ground, raising their voices to demand transparency and agency over the future of their land.
Second, Greenpeace Africa has escalated this fight by submitting a legal filing to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, affirming that corporations have obligations to transparency and human rights regardless where they operate in the world.
Now, Greenpeace Netherlands is taking the resistance directly to JBS’ European headquarters.
The 21-Day countdown – demand the meat giant release their hidden files
We are witnessing a collision between two very different worlds.
On one side are the billionaire Batista brothers behind JBS, whose expansion of the JBS empire within and beyond Brazil was facilitated by admitted systemic corruption at the highest level. Just yesterday, the Brazilian government reportedly filed a lawsuit against JBS for labour abuses in their supply chain and are seeking nearly $24 million in damages from the company.
On the other side, people around the world are standing in solidarity with frontline communities who seek to protect their land, their food sovereignty and their right to water against the billionaire bullies.
Today, Greenpeace Netherlands took the first step toward legal action, giving the JBS Board of Directors exactly 21 days to release their hidden files.
Under new Dutch legislation, if JBS fails to comply within three weeks, Greenpeace Netherlands can seek this information from senior JBS figures under oath, raising the prospect of the billionaire Batista brothers being forced to testify in a Dutch court.
Unless and until JBS releases the files and demonstrates that its current policies and expansion strategy won’t exacerbate dangerous climate change and ecosystem collapse, Greenpeace Netherlands calls on JBS N.V. to cease any and all expansion.
But to make sure JBS gets the message, we need an undeniable wave of public pressure behind it. We have the paper, and the activists sent them a clear message in Amsterdam. Now, we need your voice to force their hand.
The clock is ticking. They have three weeks.
Demand the world’s largest meat empire. JBS, to reveal the true cost of their expansion.
Send emailIsabel Willemsen is the biodiversity campaign lead at Greenpeace Netherlands.
Discussion
All meat company should be banned
I want to join Green peace in future ☺️ it's a dream for me to join Green peace to make our planet greeny 🤗