Dear President Trump,
You ran and won a campaign centered on uplifting the working class, lowering food and grocery prices, and enacting America-first policies across the board. No action will help fulfill these promises as swiftly as holding Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS accountable for its years of harming American farmers’ and ranchers’ livelihoods, brazenly manipulating the meat market, and whose efforts to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange stand to threaten our financial markets.
The corrupt and anti-American operations of JBS S.A. and its U.S. subsidiary JBS USA (JBS) have had a clear adverse impact on hardworking U.S. stakeholders across the beef, pork, and poultry industries. In the last three years alone, federal courts have found JBS to have manipulated prices and restricted market supply, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to various wholesalers, retailers, restaurants, and consumers.
Just last month, McDonald’s said ‘enough’ by filing a lawsuit against JBS and other meat producers for violating antitrust laws, fixing cattle supply and prices, and underpaying suppliers – actions that have raised the price of beef, which is ultimately passed onto consumers.
These actions are par for the course for Joesley and Wesley Batista, who control JBS S.A. through their holding company J&F Investimentos. Extensive media coverage and federal reviews have showcased their criminal history, including involvement in Brazil’s largest anti-corruption probe, insider trading allegations, and U.S. foreign bribery charges in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These only scrape the surface of a years-long campaign by JBS and the Batistas to take control of American agriculture at the expense of all who stand in their way.
We write today to urge your administration to take a stand against this malicious foreign actor through two specific actions: 1) use your executive powers to block JBS’s years-long pursuit of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange and 2) select a Secretary of Agriculture who will strengthen our domestic supply chains and prioritize the interests of American farmers, ranchers, and meatpacking operations.
As Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently stated, the current system is “destroying the economic health of farmers by forcing them to get big or get out … Big corporate farms do just fine, while the small and medium family operators are squeezed to the point of collapse.” Granting JBS access to U.S. capital through their IPO will only further their harm to American agriculture, jeopardize the future of our farmers and ranchers, increase the United States reliance on foreign markets, and put the hardworking American agricultural community, everyday families, and investors at risk. It must be stopped.
About Ban the Batistas
Ban the Batistas is an advocacy group fighting to protect American farmers, ranchers, consumers, and investors from the risks of a U.S. stock listing by JBS S.A. and the unchecked power grab by its majority shareholders, brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista. Learn more at banthebatistas.com.
Contact:
Katya Myagkova
