New York Files Climate Greenwashing Suit Against Beef Giant JBS

The State of New York has filed a climate lawsuit against JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, seeking to hold it accountable for alleged misrepresentations and misleading marketing. The company has engaged in deceptive business practices and fraud through greenwashing claims about the environmental sustainability of its beef products and about its ability to meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain to net zero by 2040, the State’s lawsuit argues.

Industrial agriculture, and especially beef production, is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate breakdown. The world’s five biggest meat and dairy corporations together account for more annual GHG emissions than oil majors like ExxonMobil, Shell and BP do individually, and JBS’s emissions in 2021 were greater than that of Ireland. Yet despite its sizable climate impact, JBS highlights its net zero climate commitment and makes other environmental claims through advertisements and marketing that cater towards environmentally-conscious consumers. According to the New York Attorney General Office, such representations are deceptive and take advantage of consumers’ preference for sustainable products.

“When companies falsely advertise their commitment to sustainability, they are misleading consumers and endangering our planet,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “JBS USA’s greenwashing exploits the pocketbooks of everyday Americans and the promise of a healthy planet for future generations. My office will always ensure that companies do not abuse the environment and the trust of hardworking consumers for profit.”

The lawsuit was filed on February 28 in the New York County Supreme Court in New York City against JBS USA Food Company – JBS’s American subsidiary – and alleges violations of New York business law for false advertising and deceptive acts or practices and violations of state law pertaining to fraudulent conduct. New York seeks a court order for the company to cease its misleading marketing, and it also seeks civil penalties and disgorgement of profits.

The state says that JBS continues to promote its “net zero by 2040” climate commitment even while it plans to expand beef production and even after the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division determined that the company’s claims around this target were unsubstantiated and therefore create a misleading impression. According to the state’s complaint, JBS’s net zero target is “not feasible given the JBS Group’s current levels of livestock production and the company’s plans to grow global demand for its products.”

The complaint points to a New York Times advertisement from April 2021 as an example of the company’s allegedly false representations. In that ad, JBS claims: “Agriculture can be part of the climate solution. Bacon, chicken wings and steak with net-zero emissions. It’s possible.”

Climate scientists, however, explain in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest scientific assessment that greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture, namely methane and nitrous oxide, cannot be mitigated effectively though existing or proposed technologies, and that production of and demand for meat, especially beef, must be curbed. Animal agriculture is responsible for more than 14 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions annually.

JBS defended its environmental commitments in a comment responding to the new lawsuit.

“JBS takes its commitment to a more sustainable future for agriculture very seriously,” Nikki Richardson, a company spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “We disagree with the action taken today by the New York Attorney General’s office. JBS will continue to partner with farmers, ranchers and our food system partners around the world to help feed a growing population while using fewer resources and reducing agriculture’s environmental impact. Our belief that American agriculture can help sustainably feed the world is undeterred.”

Environmental advocates and campaigners applauded the New York Attorney General Office for taking legal action against one of the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters.

“JBS is one of the top global companies contributing to climate change and has proven time and again it can't be trusted to self-police,” Monique Mikhail, campaigns director in agriculture climate finance at Friends of the Earth U.S., said in a press release. “Corporations should and must be held responsible when they mislead the public about their harmful impacts.”

“As the largest meat company in the world, with a significant climate footprint, JBS has a responsibility to be fully transparent about its emissions, reduction strategies, and outcomes,” said Ben Lilliston, director of climate strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “The New York Attorney General’s action today not only holds JBS accountable for its unsubstantiated net-zero claim, but also sends a strong signal to other companies that empty promises do not pass for climate action.”

In November the New York attorney general filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against PepsiCo to hold the company accountable for its single-use plastic packaging that is polluting the environment, since most plastic cannot be recycled. The lawsuit claims PepsiCo failed to warn consumers about health and environmental risks associated with its plastic packaging and misleads consumers about its efforts to tackle the plastic problem. Like animal agriculture and beef production, plastic is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.