Global agribusiness titan JBS is facing legal action in the Netherlands, where environmental group Greenpeace has filed a petition requiring the company to disclose how its $6bn (£4.5bn) global expansion strategy aligns with climate, nature, and human rights obligations.
Courts in the Netherlands, home to JBS’s global headquarters, will evaluate the petition to determine whether the firm is adhering to Dutch statutory “duty of care” regulations and its own public sustainability pledges. Legal analysts view the proceedings as a potential precedent for future climate litigation targeted at the agricultural sector, which remains the primary driver of global deforestation and a major source of methane emissions.
The legal action represents a preliminary step towards formal litigation against the multinational meat processor, marking an extension of climate accountability strategies previously directed at fossil fuel companies.
“The primary objective is to challenge JBS’s business model and expansion model,” said Richard Brown, legal counsel at Greenpeace International. “We have a suspicion that they’re flying blind and not pulling together the information they need to understand the impacts.”
At the core of the petition lies a reported lack of transparency surrounding JBS’s planned expansion across Africa, including a proposed $2.5bn investment in six industrial meat-processing units in Nigeria. Civil society organisations have voiced concerns over the scarcity of impact assessments regarding local food security, land-use allocation, smallholder livelihoods, and methane emissions.
Elujulo Opeyemi, spokesperson for the Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Network, noted that regional authorities in Nigeria’s Niger state have already pledged 1.2 million hectares to the development, calling for a pause on the venture until formal cost-benefit assessments are conducted.
JBS relocated its corporate headquarters to the Netherlands last year to facilitate a dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange and restructure its ownership model. However, the European relocation subjects the entity to stricter Dutch corporate governance standards.
“We say that if you come to the Netherlands, you have to play by Dutch rules and be held to account to Dutch standards,” Brown added. “Ultimately this is about a global conglomerate and how its activities should be limited within safe planetary boundaries.”
The legal request follows scrutiny over JBS’s historical environmental commitments, including the recent abandonment of its target to clean up its Brazilian beef supply chain by the end of 2025 and the withdrawal of its “net zero by 2040” pledge.
“We have been left with no choice but to seek our right to information through the Dutch courts,” stated Marieke Vellekoop, Executive Director at Greenpeace Netherlands.
In response to queries, JBS stated that it “does not comment on potential legal proceedings of which it has not been notified.”
