Ban the Batistas Launches Digital Food Prices Campaign as JBS, Leading Contributor to Inflated Food Costs, Attempts to List on NYSE
New York, NY (July 11, 2024) – Executive Director of Ban the Batistas, Kimberly Spell, issued astatement in response to President Biden’s remarks during a meeting yesterday with national union leaders, where he asserted that “food prices are still too high because of corporate greed.” Ban the Batistas also produced a video featuring Biden’s comments as part of a broader digital campaign to shed light on JBS’s role in the increasingly unattainable cost of food.
“Like the many farmers, elected officials, and concerned citizens vocal on this issue, President Biden understands that greed-motivated companies like JBS are responsible for soaring grocery prices. While Americans struggle to put food on the table, their profits surge.
There is no better poster boy for corporate greed than the Batista brothers and JBS, who in the last four years alone have paid out tens of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits for price-fixing. As markets still recover from this gross misconduct, JBS earnings haveskyrocketed to their highest since 2022.
If allowed to list on the New York Stock Exchange, JBS would use American dollars to once again fix prices and artificially inflate food costs. We urge the Biden administration to protect Americans’ pocketbooks and not stay silent on this issue: demand that the SEC reject the JBS IPO once and for all.”
In May, 40 Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jim McGovern, wrote a letter to the Biden administration urging them to take executive action against these predatory practices and lower food prices. The following week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing on the corporate consolidation and price gouging leading to sky-highfood prices for consumers. Experts testified to how JBS’s anticompetitive practices damage American farmers’ livelihoods, and how “ultimately, the consumer pays the price.”
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:
Emma Brodsky
