Brazil's JBS - Planet's Biggest Beef Company - "Recommending Climate Policy" At CRAP-30

EDIT

JBS was tapped to lead the Food Systems Working Group within the Sustainable Business COP. That group also includes representatives from multiple agribusiness giants: chemical and seed companies Bayer and BASF, food companies PepsiCo and Nestlé, and commodity grain supplier Bunge. The working group produced a report this year with three recommendations for climate policy: to converge on a “minimum viable framework” for food systems, to foster productivity growth, and to build models for financing and collaboration “to support farmers’ transition to resilient and sustainable food systems.”

Case studies in the report include a JBS project called “Green Offices 2.0,” which involves the company working with Brazilian cattle producers to curb deforestation and implement conservation practices. Deforestation contributes up to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and clearing land for agriculture is the number one cause. The report also highlights Bayer and PepsiCo projects that pay farmers to adopt practices like no-till and cover cropping. (Both of those have proven environmental benefits, but evidence of their ability to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions is slim.)

EDIT

One of the “network partners” Weller listed as a working group in his presentation is Embrapa, a state-owned agriculture research entity in Brazil. At COP30, it is hosting a trade show filled with event programming called the AgriZone. There, companies will host exhibits and panels, some of which involve government representatives. One panel titled “Can Animal Agriculture Drive Sustainability Solutions?” is hosted by Protein PACT, an initiative created by a coalition of animal agriculture companies and trade groups to promote the sustainability of meat. One of JBS’ founders is an executive board member for the Meat Institute, one of Protein PACT’s primary partners.

In a report released by the Changing Markets Foundation last week, researchers dug into the details of the AgriZone and said that while it was encouraging to see recent COPs give food and agriculture more attention, the AgriZone seems to serve a different purpose. “Rather than driving substantive reform, it appears designed to burnish agribusiness’s image on the world stage promoting a narrative of sustainability that bears little resemblance to reality,” they wrote. Lilliston says that’s a real issue to consider. “One of the reasons why people are getting more and more cynical about these COP meetings . . . is how they’re just becoming trade shows and sort of expositions and they’re not actually leading to the kind of concrete action that we need,” he said.

EDIT

https://civileats.com/2025/11/12/at-cop30-brazilian-meat-giant-jbs-recommends-climate-policy/