Call for outgoing SEC chair to junk JBS IPO

With just one month left in office, we’re calling for SEC Chair Gary Gensler to reject JBS’s New York Stock Exchange application — once and for all.

Letter to SEC Chair Gensler New submission to SEC

As Gary Gensler’s term as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nears its end on January 20, 2025, Mighty Earth has sent Chair Gensler a final letter urging him to use his remaining few weeks in office to reject JBS’s application to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

This is not a new request. Over the past year and a half, Mighty Earth with other environmental groups, animal welfare organizations, US, EU & UK policymakers and investors have repeatedly called on the SEC to block JBS from entering the world’s largest stock market. A slew of complaints submitted to the SEC highlight JBS’s troubling record, which includes environmental violations, human rights abuses, governance failures and misleading ‘Net Zero’ and greenwashing claims.

Our latest submission to the SEC outlines nine recent material developments that further underscore the risks associated with JBS’s ambition to list on the NYSE, which would give the company access to billions of dollars to expand its climate-wrecking operation:

1. A Mighty Earth investigation linking JBS to widespread “chemical deforestation” of the Pantanal wetlands in Brazil using a compound of the toxic defoliant “Agent Orange.”
2. JBS fined by Brazil’s environment agency IBAMA for consistently purchasing and selling cattle raised on illegally deforested land in the Amazon.
3. The removal from JBS’s June 2024 F-4 IPO registration document of its commitment to “zero-tolerance” of invasions of protected areas.
4. Evidence from a Greenpeace report which finds JBS’s estimated methane emissions exceed those of carbon majors ExxonMobil and Shell.
5. A report from JBS subsidiary Pilgrim’s Pride which indicates the company concedes it now may not achieve “Net Zero by 2040”.
6. Serious allegations of human-trafficking and rights violations of legal migrant workers involving JBS USA Holdings at its Greeley meatpacking plant in Colorado.
7. A recent lawsuit filed by McDonald’s fast-food chain against JBS and other meatpackers for alleged price-fixing related to beef.
8. Growing investor opposition to JBS’s planned IPO, driven by concerns over misleading information.
9. A letter by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) urging SEC Chair Gary Gensler to deny JBS’s NYSE IPO application.

This submission rounds off another damning year for JBS and highlights the immense suffering inflicted on people, the planet and animals by the meat giant’s destructive practices.

Despite continuing to flaunt its “Net Zero by 2040” claims, JBS currently faces a lawsuit by the New York Attorney General Letitia James for misleading the public about its environmental impact and false net zero claims. We have also reminded Chair Gensler of Mighty Earth’s active whistleblower challenge against JBS’s alleged fraudulent $3.2 billion in Sustainability-Linked Bonds.

Kevin Galbraith (Attorney for Mighty Earth), Edivan Guajajara (Indigenous activist & filmmaker) and Glenn Hurowitz (CEO of Mighty Earth) handing in Mighty Earth’s Whistleblower complaint to the SEC on January 17, 2023. 

Instead of tackling its outsized climate footprint, JBS is expanding its enormous meat empire and plans to set up production of beef, chicken and pork in Nigeria, fully aware that the animals in its supply chain are the primary source of its emissions, which fuel the climate and nature crisis.

JBS’s track record as the world’s largest agricultural methane polluter, a leading driver of Brazilian deforestation, and a company plagued by numerous alleged human rights abuses all lead to one conclusion – the Brazilian meat giant must be stopped in its path of global destruction.

Mighty Earth has named JBS’s New York Stock Exchange application as the single most important IPO for the climate in history. Junking the JBS IPO would be one of Gary Gensler’s most impactful decisions for Nature and our planet, and a fitting legacy for the outgoing SEC chair.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler