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JBS USA

JBS USA Holdings, Inc. is a meat processing company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian multinational JBS S.A. The subsidiary was created when JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with its purchase of Swift & Company.

Company type

1855 (1855)

Wesley Batista Filho, (CEO)

Increase US$27.8 billion (2017)

78,000+

JBS USA is based in Greeley, Colorado.[1] Its competitors include Hormel Foods, Cargill, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods.

Immigration raids[edit]

In December 2006, six of the company's meat-packing facilities in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Iowa, and Minnesota were raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, resulting in the apprehension of 1,282 undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan, and Ethiopia, and nearly 200 of them were criminally charged after a ten-month investigation into identity theft.[15][16]

Amazon deforestation and net-zero pledge[edit]

In March 2021, JBS pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2040- the first global meat company to do so. This followed evidence from investigative journalist Dom Phillips of links in the JBS supply chain to illegal deforestation in the Amazon.[17] The company pledged to eliminate illegal deforestation, including in the threatened Cerrado region, from its supply chains by 2030.


In March 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued JBS USA for violating the state's general business laws on deceptive practices and false advertising. The lawsuit alleges that since a majority of Americans prefer and are willing to pay more for net-zero products, JBS initiated its "Net Zero by 2040" marketing campaign before even identifying its Scope 3 emissions arising from the full supply chain of meat production.[18] At the 2023 Climate Week NYC event, JBS S.A. CEO Gilberto Tomazoni was questioned by New York Times reporter David Gelles over the Better Business Bureau's determination that JBS' net zero marketing was unsubstantiated, given that the company lacked specific planning to execute on this goal.[19]

Food safety and quality issues[edit]

On June 24, 2009, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that JBS Swift Beef Company, a Greeley, Colorado, establishment, recalled about 41,280 lb (18,720 kg) of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. By June 30, the recall included over 421,000 lb (191,000 kg).[20] The beef products were produced on April 21 and 22, 2009, and were shipped to distributors and retail establishments in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.[21]


On November 4, 2010, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered JBS Carriers, a subsidiary of JBS, to install electronic on-board recorders on their trucks after a compliance review found "serious violation" of federal hours of service.[22]


On December 2, 2010, JBS announced that it would use Arrowsight, a remote video auditing company, to monitor proper sanitation to prevent cross contamination during processing. They also use Arrowsight to monitor their live cattle for proper animal welfare practices. These programs have shown great success.[23]


The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration assessed a $175,000 civil penalty against JBS/Swift on December 22, 2010, for violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act by failing to disclose when missing Fat-O-Meat’er data had prevented JBS from calculating the lean percentage of a particular pork carcass or carcasses in a seller's lot, and substituting an undisclosed lean value for pork carcasses with missing data when calculating carcass-merit payment for hogs delivered to JBS’ Worthington, MN, Marshalltown, IA, and Louisville, KY, processing plants. The Packers and Stockyards Act is a fair trade practice and payment protection law that promotes fair and competitive marketing environments for the livestock, meat, and poultry industries.[24]

Coronavirus outbreak[edit]

The JBS facility in Greeley, Colorado came into national focus during the COVID-19 outbreak when at least 50[25] workers tested positive by April 10, 2020, and two workers had died of the disease. By April 14 a third worker had died of COVID-19. US President Donald Trump referred to the case in the daily White House briefing on April 10.[26] All workers were supposed to be tested during the Easter holidays, with the plant being closed until April 24, 2020. Testing of all did not take place over Easter; rather, a JBS company spokesman announced that workers would be quarantined.[27] The plant reopened after a 9-day closure.[28] By April 15, 102 workers had tested positive for the coronavirus, and four had died.[29] Outbreaks of COVID-19 have also been found in six other JBS beef processing plants, in Souderton, Pennsylvania; Plainwell, Michigan; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Nebraska; and Hyrum, Utah.[30][31][32]


The United States House Select Oversight Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a report in May of 2022 detailing the relationship between the Trump administration and the meat packing industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report describes the CEO of JBS (along with the CEOs of Tyson and Smithfield) asking the secretary of agriculture, Sonny Perdue, about elevating the need for workers to stay present at work, despite the risk of working in close quarters during the pandemic.[33][34]

Cyberattack[edit]

JBS USA was the target of a cyberattack in May 2021.[35] The attack disrupted all JBS facilities in the United States.

location of a JBS meatpacking plant

Cactus, Texas

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meat industry in the United States

chairman and president of Swift & Co., 1955–1967

Porter Jarvis

listed in the National Register of Historic Places (demolished)

Swift Packing Company building (Sioux City, Iowa)

Swift Refrigerator Line

Official website

Booklet "For Variety" with Swift & Company recipes

Swift & Company History

A Nations Meat. 1940 Swift & Company promotional film