Meatpackers deny workers benefits for COVID-19 deaths, illnesses

© Reuters/Jim Urquhart FILE PHOTO: Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Greeley, Colorado

By Tom Hals and Tom Polansek

(Reuters) - Saul Sanchez died in April, one of six workers with fatal COVID-19 infections at meatpacker JBS USA's slaughterhouse in Greeley, Colorado, the site of one of the earliest and deadliest coronavirus outbreaks at a U.S. meatpacking plant.

Before getting sick, the 78-year-old Sanchez only left home to work on the fabrication line, where cattle carcasses are sliced into cuts of beef, and to go to his church, with its five-person congregation, said his daughter, Betty Rangel. She said no one else got infected in the family or at Bible Missionary Church, which could not be reached for comment.

JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, denied the family's application for workers' compensation benefits, along with those filed by the families of two other Greeley workers who died of COVID-19, said lawyers handling the three claims. Families of the three other Greeley workers who died also sought compensation, a union representative said, but Reuters could not determine the status of their claims.

JBS has said the employees' COVID-19 infections were not work-related in denying the claims, according to responses the company gave to employees, which were reviewed by Reuters.

As more Americans return to workplaces, the experience of JBS employees shows the difficulty of linking infections to employment and getting compensation for medical care and lost wages.

"That is the ultimate question: How can you prove it?" said Nick Fogel, an attorney specializing in workers' compensation at the firm Burg Simpson in Colorado.The meatpacking industry has suffered severe coronavirus outbreaks, in part because production-line workers often work side-by-side for long shifts. Companies including JBS, Tyson Foods Inc and WH Group Ltd's <0288.HK> Smithfield Foods closed about 20 plants this spring after outbreaks, prompting President Donald Trump in April to order the plants to stay open to ensure the nation's meat supply. The White House declined to comment on the industry's rejections of workers' claims. The U.S. Department of Labor did not respond to a request for comment.

Tyson has also denied workers' compensation claims stemming from a big outbreak in Iowa, workers' attorneys told Reuters. Smithfield workers at a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, also hit by a major outbreak, have generally not filed claims, a union official said, in part because the company has paid infected workers' wages and medical bills.

Smithfield declined to comment on workers’ compensation. Tyson said it reviews claims on a case-by-case basis, but declined to disclose how often it rejects them. JBS acknowledged rejecting claims but declined to say how often. It called the denials consistent with the law, without elaborating.

Workers can challenge companies' denials in an administrative process that varies by state but typically resembles a court hearing. The burden of proof, however, usually falls on the worker to prove a claim was wrongfully denied.

The full picture of how the meatpacking industry has handled COVID-related workers' compensation remains murky because of a lack of national claims data. Reuters requested data from seven states where JBS or its affiliates have plants that had coronavirus outbreaks. Only three states provided data in any detail; all show a pattern of rejections.

In Minnesota, where JBS had a major outbreak, meatpacking employees filed 930 workers' compensation claims involving COVID-19 as of Sept. 11, according to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. None were accepted, 717 were rejected and 213 were under review. The agency did not identify the employers.The Minnesota Department of Health said only two meatpacking plants there had significant coronavirus outbreaks: a JBS pork processing plant in Worthington, and a poultry plant in Cold Spring run by Pilgrim's Pride Corp , which is majority-owned by JBS.

Tom Atkinson, a Minnesota workers' compensation attorney who has represented meatpacking workers, estimates up to 100 COVID-19 claims were filed by employees at the Worthington plant.

In Utah, seven JBS workers filed claims related to COVID-19 by Aug. 1 and all were denied, according to the state's Labor Commission. At least 385 workers at a JBS beef plant in Hyrum, Utah, tested positive for COVID-19.

In Colorado, 69% of the 2,294 worker compensation claims for COVID-19 had been denied as of Sept. 12. Although the state does not break down the denials by industry, a JBS spokesman told Reuters the company is rejecting claims in Colorado and that it uses the same claim-review procedures nationwide.

JBS spokesman Cameron Bruett did not answer the question of whether JBS employees were infected on the job and declined comment on individual workers’ claims. He said the company has outsourced claim reviews to a third-party administrator.

"Given the widespread nature of viral spread, our third-party claims administrator reviews each case thoroughly and independently," said Bruett.

The administrator, Sedgwick, did not respond to a request for comment. Bruett, also a spokesman for Pilgrim's Pride, did not respond to questions about infections and claims at its Minnesota plant.

At the JBS plant in Greeley, where Sanchez worked before he died, at least 291 of about 6,000 workers were infected, according to state data. The company, in its written response to the family’s claim, said that his infection was “not work-related,” without spelling out its reasoning. The two sides are now litigating the matter in Colorado's workers' compensation system.

Under Colorado law, a workers' compensation death benefit provides about two-thirds of the deceased worker's salary to the surviving spouse and pays medical expenses not covered by insurance. If JBS had not denied the Sanchez family’s claim, that would have provided his widow a steady income and paid uncovered medical bills totaling about $10,000, according to his daughter.

"They don't care," Rangel said of JBS. "They are all about the big profits, and they are not going to give any money out."

MASS INFECTIONS, LITTLE COMPENSATION

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, which represents 250,000 U.S. meatpacking and food-processing workers, said last week at least 122 meatpacking workers have died of COVID-19 and more than 18,000 had missed work because they were infected or potentially exposed.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said on Sept. 11 that it had cited JBS for failing to protect workers at the Greeley plant from the virus. OSHA cited Smithfield this month for failing to protect workers at its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, plant, where the agency said nearly 1,300 workers contracted the coronavirus and four died.

Smithfield and JBS said the citations had no merit because they concerned conditions in plants before OSHA issued COVID-19 guidance for the industry. OSHA said it stands by the citations.

Workers' compensation is generally the only way to recoup medical expenses and lost wages for work-related injuries and deaths. The system protects employers from lawsuits, with few exceptions, and allows workers to collect benefits without having to prove fault or negligence. But the system was designed for factory accidents, not airborne illnesses.

In response to the coronavirus, governors and lawmakers in at least 14 states have made it easier for some employees to collect workers compensation for COVID-19 by putting the burden on companies and insurers to prove an infection did not occur at work. But most of the changes, which vary by state, only apply to workers in healthcare or emergency services. A similar proposal failed to gain support in Colorado.

Mark Dopp, general counsel for the North American Meat Institute, a trade association that represents meatpackers, said it is difficult to determine where workers get infections given extensive sanitation efforts taken by meat plants and workers' daily travel to and from the plants.

Tyson in April closed its Waterloo, Iowa, pork processing plant due to a COVID-19 outbreak. Ben Roth, a local workers’ compensation attorney, said five families of employees who died filed workers compensation claims for death benefits, and all were denied.

He said meat-processing companies have an incentive to deny every claim because admitting they caused even one infection can expose the firms to liability for all workers contracting COVID-19.

"That undercuts the argument that they want to make across the board: that you can’t prove you got it here and not at a grocery store," Roth said.

Tyson said it follows state laws for workers’ compensation. The company noted that Iowa law states that disease with an equal likelihood of being contracted outside the workplace are "not compensable as an occupational disease.”

In Colorado, Sylvia Martinez runs a group called Latinos Unidos of Greeley and said she knows of more than 20 JBS workers who applied for workers compensation and were denied. Many plant workers are not native English speakers and sought out her group for guidance, she said, adding that many don't understand their rights and fear being fired. The company's rejections have discouraged more claims, Martinez said.

"If you deny five or 10, those workers will tell their co-workers," she said.

'WHO IS GOING TO HIRE HIM?'

JBS also contested the claim of Alfredo Hernandez, 55, a custodian who worked at the Greeley plant for 31 years. He became infected and was hospitalized in March. He still relies on supplemental oxygen and hasn't returned to work, said his wife, Rosario Hernandez.

Generall y, companies approve claims if it looks probable that an employee was injured or sickened at work, said Erika Alverson, the attorney representing Hernandez. But JBS, she said, is arguing workers could have contracted COVID-19 anywhere.

"They're getting into, where did our clients go, what were they doing during that time, who was coming into their house, what did their spouse do, was there any other form of exposure?" said Alverson, of the Denver firm Alverson and O’Brien.

A judge will decide the Hernandez case in an administrative hearing. In the meantime, the Hernandez family has only his disability benefits – a portion of his salary – to cover his medical and insurance costs, Rosario Hernandez said.

"We're getting bunches of bills," she said.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Caroline Stauffer and Brian Thevenot)

Meat company faces heat over ‘cattle laundering’ in Amazon supply chain

Brazil’s JBS says it can’t trace the origins of all stock, as concern grows over deforestation linked to beef industry

JBS OPERATES IN CANADA AS WELL

Animals farmed is supported by

About this content

Dom Phillips Thu 20 Feb 2020
 

An undisclosed percentage of meat processed

 at JBS plants comes from ‘indirect suppliers’, 

which are difficult to monitor. 

Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters


The world’s biggest meat company has frequently been accused of links to deforestation. Now JBS is facing growing pressure from Brazilian politicians and environmentalists to address the information gaps and transparency failings in its supply chain.

Critics say these deficiencies mean JBS is unable to ensure it does not buy cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation over a decade after promising to do so.

Senator Fabiano Contarato, who presides over the environment commission, has called for Brazil’s environment and agriculture ministers to attend a Congress hearing. “These facts are serious and they should be investigated rigorously,” he said. “This is a form of cattle laundering.”

Amid mounting outrage over damage to the Amazon from deforestation and fires linked to cattle farming, the meat company’s lack of transparency is increasingly out of step with global finance. The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock has now made sustainability integral to investing. The climate crisis dominated the 2020 World Economic Forum at Davos.

But JBS remains unable to monitor a significant proportion of its suppliers despite operating deep in the Amazon. It is a problem for the entire meat industry in Brazil, but other companies, such as Marfrig, have come clean about the scale of the issue, and are taking action to resolve it. Meanwhile, JBS has refused to answer direct questions about exactly how much of its beef comes from so-called “indirect suppliers”.

Further criticism has been levelled at the audits done on the JBS supply chain, which state openly that there is “no verification system” in place for indirect suppliers.

The swashbuckling meat tycoons who nearly brought down a governmen

“This is totally against ethical principles in relation to its consumers,” said Marina Silva, a former environment minister who won international awards for reducing deforestation and called for a certification programme. “These audits end up as more of a smokescreen.”

Last year joint investigative work by the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism showed the way that global meat demand was driving Amazon deforestation and revealed that fires were three times more common in Amazon beef farming areas.

Cattle may be birthed on one farm, fattened

on another, and then sold on to other farms 

or slaughterhouses. 

Photograph: João Laet/The Guardian

JBS operates sophisticated checks for cattle reaching its slaughterhouses from Amazon “full cycle” farms – where cattle are reared from birth to slaughter. These farms are also called “direct suppliers”.

“The JBS monitoring system in the Amazon covers more than 280,000 sq miles, an area larger than Germany, and assesses more than 50,000 potential cattle-supplying farms every day,” the company said. “To date, we have blocked more than 8,000 cattle-supplying farms due to noncompliance.”

But this is only part of the picture. JBS does not monitor indirect suppliers in its supply chain. These are farms where cattle are birthed, or those who sell to farms where cattle are fattened, who then sell on to other farms or to slaughterhouses.

Marfrig, JBS’s biggest competitor admits that half its cattle in the Amazon come from such suppliers, but JBS so far has refused to give figures to the Guardian’s direct question. And that, say environmentalists, prosecutors and researchers, is a big problem.

“Cattle supply chains are really fluid and producers can move between the different roles and commonly sell as both direct suppliers and indirect suppliers,” said Holly Gibbs, a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin who has monitored Amazon cattle supply chains for a decade. Her research showed that 80% of direct suppliers in the Amazon bought from other properties – on average up to 15 of them.

Revealed: rampant deforestation of Amazon driven by global greed for meat

“Direct suppliers often own multiple properties but only one is property is monitored,” she said. “The vast majority are either adjacent or within 1km.”

She compared the system to using air conditioning in a heatwave but leaving the windows open. “The cattle companies are monitoring direct suppliers but there are so many loopholes that the indirect suppliers can just come in and out,” she said.

Last year Marfrig told the Guardian that 53% of its cattle purchases came from indirect suppliers. But JBS refused to discuss how many of its cattle came from indirect suppliers and declined to make a spokesperson available for interview.

“JBS is committed to eradicating deforestation, ensuring sustainable livestock practices and improving the livelihoods of farmers in the Amazon region,” the company said by email. “We have worked for more than a decade on the frontlines, driving meaningful, responsible change in the region. We urge those who share the common goal of ending deforestation to seek solutions rather than criticism. We will only meet this collective challenge and preserve this important biome through collaboration and action.”

But the company has been making these promises for more than a decade. In 2009 a devastating report from Greenpeace led to JBS, Marfrig and Minerva (another Brazilian meat giant) signing a landmark cattle agreement with the environmental NGO. The meat companies promised not to buy from any direct suppliers involved in deforestation and to expand that commitment to include indirect suppliers within two years.

The same year federal prosecutors in Amazon states signed agreements with more than a dozen meat companies, including JBS, Marfrig and Minerva.

“It was a watermark,” said Greenpeace Brazil’s senior forest campaigner Adriana Charoux.

Deforestation fell afterwards, said Daniel Azeredo, a federal prosecutor who played a key role in the prosecutors’ deal.

But he noted: “It talked about the direct suppliers, those that sell to slaughterhouse, not those who sell to another farm.” A clause in the deal requiring companies to start monitoring indirect suppliers had no deadline, he said.

Fires were three times more common in

 beef-producing zones than in the rest of the 

Amazon in 2019. Photograph: Joao Laet/Getty

In 2017, JBS was fined R$24.7m (£4.2m) by Brazil’s government environment agency Ibama for buying 49,000 cattle in the Amazon state of Pará from illegally deforested areas – some via indirect suppliers. Following the fine, Greenpeace abandoned the cattle agreement. “Our credibility would have been completely at risk if we continued with them,” Charoux said.

The deal with prosecutors still stands, but Azeredo believes meat companies should be doing more. “All the companies working in the Amazon know that indirect suppliers is a serious problem,” he said.

When asked about these issues, JBS points journalists to the independent audits performed by Norwegian company DNV.GL, the latest of which reported that no irregularities relating to deforestation in 7,140 Amazon cattle transactions were found during 2018. The same company audits Marfrig.

But the 2019 audit added a caveat, as it also did in 2018. “Regarding indirect suppliers, JBS and the industry in general does not yet have in place a verification system in these cases,” it said.

Critics questioned an audit that failed to check out the entire supply chain. “Nobody is going to buy the animals if they don’t know where they are from, or if they are healthy,” said Prem Sikka, a professor of accounting and finance at the University of Sheffield. “If there is a trail, that makes the auditors’ omission even more damning.”

DNV.GL has been doing audits for Marfrig since 2011 and for JBS since 2018. “Our role is to assess adherence to the ‘minimum criteria for transactions with cattle and beef products on an industrial scale in the amazon biome’,” a spokesperson said in an email, referring to the terms of the deal with Greenpeace signed in 2009 – but crucially, not the promise to start monitoring indirect suppliers within two years, by 2011.

Revealed: fires three times more common in Amazon beef farming zones

“Indirect suppliers’ information was requested, however the companies do not have this information,” DNV.GL said. “In both cases a non-conformity was raised.”

“In the case of indirect suppliers, JBS has not yet been successful in implementing traceability processes,” the audit’s “non-conformity” entry read.

Since 2013, Marfrig has used a self-declaratory mechanism called a request form of information (RFI) in which the farm delivering the cattle is required to supply the name of its supplier, including tax number and the name of the farm. A spokesperson said last year that 30% of its cattle supply from the Amazon came with the form, which it is working with the World Wildlife Fund and other non-profit groups to improve.

“For me, RFI is a good tool even though it is voluntary,” said Mauro Armelin, executive director of Friends of the Earth Brazil. “It has a good chance of success.”

Lack of transparency makes it difficult to tell 

if cattle originate from illegally-deforested areas. 

Photograph: João Laet/The Guardian

Armelin said monitoring systems could also make use of state and federal government information on cattle movements, produced for sanitary controls. But last year, the Brazilian government restricted access to sanitary control documents that had previously been accessible.

“It’s critical that this data stays available,” Gibbs from the University of Wisconsin said. “It’s very challenging to monitor indirect suppliers.”

DNV.GL stated that the government documents “are not public” and that JBS and other companies have been trying to get access to them from the ministry without success.

But other researchers have succeeded in accessing them in the past.Using these documents and information from Brazilian government registers and databases, University of Wisconsin researchers and the US National Wildlife Federation developed their own monitoring system: Visipec; a free cloud-based tool that can be plugged into cattle companies’ current monitoring systems.

“Increasingly, they’re open and there’s a lot of discussions happening,” Gibbs said of the meat companies. But so far, she said, not one of them has taken it up.

It was announced on Thursday that JBS is buying American meat-packing company Empire Packing Company for $238m (£185m).

---30---

THE GUARDIAN

I Was A Member Of The John Birch Society


heretofore (AUTHOR)
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Tuesday May 31, 2016 

(and why you should listen to my confession)

I have never confessed this, and as I am not adding my name, it remains, I hope, a secret; and also why this is an early post, a matter that only my sister keeps needling me about since that ONE PERIOD in the 1970s, when I also burned my Black Sabbath albums, which she caught me at, but she also caught me at growing Mary Jane on the roof top. (Mercy, sister, must you always bring this shit up?)

I was a Liberal, a hippie type, in the early ‘70s, as a kid. In 1972, some of us boys in the 5th grade actually staged a sit-in to protest the Vietnam War. It was after Kent State. When parents in a small town see politics reach all the way to their not-even-teen-aged children, well, it made an impact. I guess. That’s all I ever did for the Nam, that’s all we tykes could do. Also, fellow kid Richard M. rigged the sprinkler system to blow … because at that time me and Ross H. couldn’t do better; we were still working on explosives, having gained no experience beyond soda-and-vinegar kaboom.

Kids. (In our defense, we later graduated to mercury fulminate, inspired the 1950s book and 1960s film “Mister Roberts” which led me to a dangerous garage distillation involving nitric acid, mercury, and home-brewed methanol — because they sold all that except booze to kids in the day).


This diary is about the importance of young boys and girls, before they become young voters, and how the far Right has taken over at the local level. You all didn’t see this shit coming since it spread its wings. Let me tell you about the John Birch Society, something that you probably never heard. (You commie rats. – that was snark). This is NOT a CP diary. It is an observation based on my experience. I hope it educates someone.

-------—


So back in the mid-1970s, when the Oil Crisis was going on, I happened upon a JBS book by Gary Allan, “None Dare Call It Conspiracy.” As a teen, I was intrigued by the idea that a “cabal” of rich white men (or others), could somehow conspire to fuck up the world. What I did not know then, and know now, is that the best LIE is couched in truth. (The “truth,” as my Liberal high school teacher said, is that oil companies can and do conspire, but a world-wide conspiracy it does not make). It wasn’t until I got to college and university that my young mind realized the utter nonsense I had been feeding my mind with, and quickly returned to my Liberal roots.

That aside, let me tell you how, back then, the JBS worked, from my experience as an accolade up to, well, a trusted fellow. Yeah, I met Robert Welch (founder of the JBS, named after a missionary killed in 1945) and Gary Allen (the former in a signing of the “Blue Book,” and the later when fat Gary was taking a shit at the Ambassador in Los Angeles when I was afforded into whatever the bastards had planned for me … to be fair, they did say that I might turn into a Liberal if I went and up got educated).

Here is how the JBS worked then, and maybe works now. As an aside, you might wonder why I would be a member of the JBS if I were so anti-war Liberal. Well, back then, the JBS hated Nixon. Hell, they hated Eisenhower. They hated GW Bush, too. But they evolved, though not without their tactics. I see it. So let’s get back to how the JBS won the ground, over the decades, without mentioning the Koch brothers’ influence.

The John Birch Society patterned its local structure according to what it learned from Communism. This is not a conspiracy theory. Read the JBS “Blue Book” by Welch if you are not sure on the point. The reason the JBS established “cells” is because that is how “the commies” succeeded. And by way of emulation, so could the far Right do better. Ah, yes, the JBS introduced me to Sun Tsu’s “Art of War.” How very clever of them. Saruman, indeed.

Anyway, I got into the JBS smack hard, about 1975, and abandoned my long-haired ways. I was taken in, and soon became a small-time speaker at one of their camps for young people. They didn’t press me, they just asked what I wanted to talk about. By this time, all I wanted to talk about was logic. So that’s what they let me do, as long as I hewed to the party line.

As a trusted young-un in the JBS, I was afforded some latitude. Except when I got kissing with a young girl from North Hollywood, whose family were really rich compared to my middle class, and she went missing for a couple of hours, and they (a couple of ex Green Berets name Mahoney and that other short fuck) put the screws to me, ah, but it turns out she was scared by a raccoon or whatever and bolted into the woods, and like that’s my fault. Again, I digress. Oh wait. The year after in Big Bear, there was this upper JBS adult man, who was perving on the young teens. Dude had major film equipment. I still have a couple of photos (don’t ask). Long story short: so I’m 17 trying for a kiss, and this 34-year-old dude is buying really skimpy bathing suits for two teens, then goes all cinema on me … so then the dude’s wife later comes up to me in my room, being as she can see I’m not happy about him horning in, but I don’t know wtf with these people or if this 30-year-old cutie is making a play on me because she is so over her husband, but turns out she’s pissed at him and not going cougar, so I just say “it’s not fair.” As in, it’s not fair to this 17-year-old that a 34-year-old man jumps into my attempt at romance ... when in fact she was simply pissed off because her husband was a fucking pervert. I wanted to punch the fucker, out of principle alone. And then later this 40-year-old JBS hardcase woman gets wind of the shit, and tries to break me on the situation … and I’m thinking, Jesus, I’m fucking 17 and all I want is to get laid in this bullshit juke joint, and even Nurse Ratched is fucking my shit up. Her name was McGowen, as I recall, and the whole clan of them came out the JBS SoCal headquarters in San Marino, CA, a pretty rich enclave to this day. At the center was Joe Merten, a pretty slick dude, perhaps even my handler. Whatever.

I should also mention the “exorcism” of a young boy that happened. I wasn’t there at the scene, but it was later explained to me. See, there was this pig-pen kid, all dirty and smelly, and his fellow campers were complaining about his body odor. Well, the fucking Berets decided to take the boy, strip him naked, and shove him into a hot shower. The boy wasn’t having any of it, and Arnie M., a firefighter, shouted sternly at the boy. As the short Beret told me, Arnie’s “jaw shot out five inches” and then the boy blanched and took his shower. I was told later that the boy was right as rain when turned over to his parents, a happy camper. In hindsight, I suspect something else. It was a tight ship, alright. Later in the ‘80s, after I bolted from the farm, I came across Arnie M. during a refinery fire in Paramount, where I was attempting journalism. “Hey, Arnie.” Straight off, he says to me: “You know, the Russians got us.” He was referring to the KAL 007 flight indeed shot down by the USSR, which happened to have aboard the successor to JBS founder Robert Welch. Fucking commies. (Please know that I grew under the umbrella of the Southern Calif. defense industry, which might explain why I was encouraged to access dangerous chemicals in order to build better rockets against the commies. But by then I wasn’t having any of his shit, and simply plied my trade to get better access to the Paramount Refinery fuckup … good luck googling it, because it was before the internet, but I have some beautiful photos in stock.)

Other than the other JBS camp photos I have from those days, you might wonder why I so vividly recall such memories. Well, one year on the way down from the Big Bear camp (it was a Presbyterian site leased by the JBS, as I recall), I nearly cooked the engine on my 1965 Mercury Comet, because the valve circulating the water cooling shut fast, and all I could do was to keep feeding oil as it boiled away, until I arrived home exhausted. When I woke up, I was told that my engine smoked for six hours. And the enormous heat didn’t crack the engine block. They don’t build ‘em like that anymore.

So what the JBS did, and does so now, is establish a human “cell” system based on the old Soviet model, which they found to be effective. They established a long-term goal, starting not only by garnering the support of Big Business (see, Koch Brothers), but also in recruiting future voters all the way down to 9-year-old children. I was there. They had me on lifeguard duty, because I was Red Cross certified, and at the mountain camp I made sure the kids didn’t drown. That was R&R, according to the Green Beret dudes. The camp was tight.

I made out with JBS girls, sure, almost got hitched to another when I was a cook in Tahoe, before I woke the fuck up (and proceeded with more adventures befitting my early 20s, as in I’ve seen a lot more shit since even that one time, which was off the rails). (Yeah, she tracked me down on the internet ten years’ back, an boy was that just five ways away from Sunday.)

So I know the how and why of the far Right wing. Them fuckers were organized a long ass time ago, and they get ‘em young, they get ‘em stupid (see Tea Party) …

And SOME in the Democratic Party have the vapors whenever we Liberals even mention taking out the hammer and tongs. The far Right had those long knives out before you were born. Thus the top image from dear old Driftglass, a blogger who deserves a lot more credit than he’s gotten.

I have sinned. I was once a bit too deep in the iniquity of the far Right. As a teenager, as a provocateur in high school in the school’s newspaper, influencing my friends, who turned out to be Republicans as I now know from Facebook … to my shame. I was an idiot with a vial full of mercury fulminate.

I done fucked up. I am sorry.

* As a side note to any young people reading this, do not worry about making mistakes. From such you learn a lot. To be perfect is an illusion. To learn from our failures is the beginning of wisdom. (Old man advise done. Peace out.)

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

How an American meat broker is fueling Amazon deforestation

LONG READ 

Sat, November 4, 2023 



WASHINGTON (AP) — As incomes in China have grown in the last decade, so has China’s appetite for beef. No longer out of reach for China’s middle class, beef now sizzles in home woks and restaurant kitchens.

China has become the world’s biggest importer of beef, and Brazil is China’s biggest supplier, according to United Nations Comtrade data. More beef moves from Brazil to China than between any other two countries.

But the Brazilian cattle industry is a major driver of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Data analysis by The Associated Press and the Rainforest Investigations Network, a nonprofit reporting consortium, found that a little-known American company is among the key suppliers and distributors feeding China’s hunger for beef – and the Amazon deforestation that it fuels.

The world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon plays a critical role in the global climate by absorbing carbon emissions. A new study published this week in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences linked Amazon deforestation to warmer regional temperatures.

Salt Lake City-based Parker-Migliorini International, better known as PMI Foods, has been a major beneficiary of the beef trade between Brazil and China. PMI has shipped more than $1.7 billion in Brazilian beef over the last decade – more than 95% of it to China, according to data from Panjiva, a company that uses customs records to track international trade. Over the last decade, Chinese beef imports have surged sixfold, U.N. Comtrade data shows, and PMI has helped satisfy China’s growing demand.

As a middleman that has been one of the leading importers of Brazilian beef to China, PMI provides a window into how that growing international trade is driving deforestation.

___

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.

___

Holly Gibbs, a professor of geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies land use changes linked to the beef industry, says that PMI has contributed to the Amazon’s destruction, because it sources beef from companies that purchase cows raised on deforested land.

Last year, the Brazilian Amazon lost more than 4,000 square miles (10,360 square kilometers) of rainforest, the equivalent of nearly 3,000 soccer fields each day, according to a January report by Imazon, a Brazilian research group that uses satellite monitoring to track deforestation.

More than two-thirds of deforested land in the Brazilian Amazon has been converted to cattle pastures, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

PMI gets more of its Brazilian beef from Sao Paulo, Brazil-based meat processing giant JBS SA than from anywhere else. In a series of reports released between 2018 and 2023, Brazilian prosecutors have determined that JBS purchased massive numbers of cattle raised on illegally deforested land. Last December, prosecutors found that JBS had bought more than 85,000 cows from ranches that engaged in illegal deforestation in Pará, one of nine states in the Brazilian Amazon. Their latest report, released October 26, found that JBS had substantially lower but still significant rates of purchases from ranches involved in environmental violations across four Amazon states.

“There’s no doubt that PMI Foods is benefiting from the deforestation of the Amazon,” Gibbs said. “They’re also helping to drive that deforestation by continuing to pay into that system.”

In an email, a PMI spokesperson said that “in a world where famine, malnutrition and acute food insecurity are a global concern, PMI is focused on feeding millions of people all over the world,” including providing meals to refugees.

PMI said it is working to strengthen environmental practices of its beef operations. “While our absolute primary priority is feeding people, we remain committed to continuous improvement of sustainability across the beef value chain,” the spokesperson said.

PMI Foods is a $3 billion global enterprise that buys and sells more than 1.6 billion pounds (725.7 million kilograms) of beef, pork, chicken, seafood and eggs each year. In the last decade, PMI Foods shipped more than $616 million of Brazilian beef from JBS, almost twice as much as from any other supplier, shipping records show.

JBS, in turn, purchased a significant share of its cattle from ranches that were illegally deforested, Brazilian prosecutors have found. These properties accounted for 15% of JBS’s cattle supply in the Amazon state of Pará from 2019 to 2020, according to an audit by prosecutors audit last December. The company’s purchases from properties linked to environmental violations decreased to 6% of its supply across four Amazon states in the following year, prosecutors found in an audit published in October.

JBS has been investigated and fined by Brazilian authorities in connection with its purchases of cattle from illegal farms, but these are separate from the audits, which are focused on improving company practices.

JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, asserts that it has fixed the problems identified in previous audits by prosecutors. In a statement, JBS said it has a “zero-tolerance policy for illegal deforestation” in its supply chains, and is adopting block chain technology to include vetting of indirect suppliers by 2025.

Yet as recently as last fall, JBS admitted to a large-scale purchase of cattle raised on illegally deforested land. Following an investigation by Repórter Brasil, a contributor to the Rainforest Investigations Network, JBS acknowledged it had illegally bought nearly 9,000 cattle from a rancher whom Brazilian authorities have described as “one of the biggest deforesters in the country.” The rancher, Chaules Volban Pozzebon, is now serving a 70-year prison sentence for offenses including leading a criminal gang.

PMI also buys in large volume from Brazil’s second largest meat processor, Marfrig, which has been dogged as well by reports by environmental groups and news outlets alleging that it purchased cattle from ranches that were involved in illegal deforestation. In February 2022, the Inter-American Development Bank scrapped a $200 million loan to Marfrig amid criticism of the company’s environmental record. In September, the Swiss food multinational Nestlé dropped Marfrig as a beef supplier in Brazil following media reports last year that Marfrig had bought cattle raised on land that was seized from indigenous peoples.

Marfrig said in an email that the ranch cited in last year’s reports was on land that had not yet been designated protected indigenous territory. Marfrig did not face legal penalties in connection with the case. The company said it has a “rigorous livestock sourcing policy” that uses satellite monitoring to avoid suppliers linked to deforestation.

Asked about its leading suppliers, JBS and Marfrig, buying cattle raised on deforested or illegally seized lands, PMI said it requires its suppliers to follow local laws, and depends on government environmental agencies in Brazil and elsewhere to enforce them. “PMI relies on the assurances set forth in the sustainability policies of its suppliers,” a company spokesman said in an email.

For its part, Brazil's Environment Ministry said independent audits have shown that major meat processors are still buying significant quantities of cattle raised on deforested land through their indirect suppliers.

“The persistence of these cases shows that the companies' systems are flawed and there is not sufficient effort to avoid illegal purchases,” the ministry said in a statement.

The FBI Investigation

PMI Foods has come under scrutiny from U.S. authorities before for its shipments to China.

Between 2008 and 2011, Parker International, a predecessor of PMI and co-creator of PMI Foods, took in more than $289 million in revenue from illegal beef shipments to China, representing the majority of U.S.-sourced sales to the country, according to a spreadsheet produced by a whistleblower for FBI investigators.

“They were willing to break laws,” whistleblower Brandon Barrick said in an interview in 2022, referring to the time that he worked at PMI. “They were willing to do whatever it took to make a buck for themselves.”

In spring of 2014, Parker International pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement to U.S. authorities about the destination of its beef exports and paid a $1 million fine.

In an email, PMI said it had put the “entire episode behind us” nine years ago, and emphasized that Parker International pleaded guilty only to making a false statement. “PMI was never charged with a crime for its export operations,” said company attorney Mark Gaylord.

Rise of beef in China

In the last decade, Chinese imports of beef from Brazil have increased from $1.3 billion in 2013 to more than $8 billion in 2022, according to U.N. Comtrade data.

PMI has been a major player in feeding that growing market. As of 2017, the company was the second largest importer of Brazilian beef to China, according to a 2020 report by Trase, a research group that studies commodity supply chains.

As Brazil became China’s biggest supplier, cattle production ramped up. China imposes relatively few environmental demands on its beef importers, meaning suppliers who need land for cattle may be tempted to engage in deforestation, said Gibbs, the University of Wisconsin geography professor.

“As China’s demand for beef goes up, so does the stress on the rainforest,” Gibbs said.

Daniel Azeredo, a Brazilian federal prosecutor who has led crackdowns on illegal deforestation in the beef industry, said companies must ensure that products from the Amazon region do not come from illegally deforested land.

“Everyone who participates in the trade of products that come from the Amazon has to be able to transparently determine the products' origin,” Azeredo said.

In response to inquiries about whether it had raised concerns about deforestation with JBS or other suppliers, PMI Foods said it “has discussions with our partners, vendors and suppliers including JBS, about always improving best practices towards the environment and sustainability.”

Middlemen avoid scrutiny

As a middleman rather than a company that raises animals or processes meat, PMI’s role in deforestation has been little examined.

PMI’s reliance on JBS is not unusual among food companies. While a handful of European retailers have dropped JBS beef products in recent years due to deforestation concerns, major American brands such as Kroger and Albertsons, the parent company of Safeway, still purchase its beef.

Albertsons confirmed that it sources beef from JBS, but said it is only a small quantity. Kroger did not respond to inquiries but its online store includes JBS beef products.

JBS, Marfrig and other top beef producers have signed pledges to work against illegal deforestation. But unlike most leading meat processors and commodity traders, PMI has not signed on to agreements to fight deforestation, such as the New York Declaration on Forests, in which endorsers commit to goals including eliminating deforestation by 2030.

Two months after initial inquiries about its environmental policies for this story, PMI said it was joining industry efforts to combat deforestation.

“We are now proud to partner with One Tree Planted, Green Business Bureau and the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef,” the company said last November. Since then it has planted 10,000 trees in the Amazon, the company said, part of a longer-term plan to plant a million trees.

The company has not yet signed a pledge against rainforest destruction, but last month said it was considering making one. “We are open to pledges and currently working on these matters,” the company said.

Gibbs, the University of Wisconsin professor, said that because PMI and other middlemen have such strong purchasing power, they “need to come to the table” to help stop deforestation.

So far meat brokers have been “completely ignored,” she said, allowing beef to reach consumers’ tables without meeting environmental standards strong enough to protect the Amazon.

Azeredo, the Brazilian prosecutor, emphasized that not just meat processors, but all companies in the beef and leather industries share the obligation to avoid suppliers that violate environmental laws.

“The entire industry that buys those animals, that sells leather or meat, must make sure that they don't allow products from areas of illegal deforestation,” Azeredo said.

___

AP journalists Camille Fassett in Seattle and Fabiano Maisonnave in Brasilia, Brazil, contributed to this report.

___

This story was first published on Nov. 3, 2023. It was updated on Nov. 4, 2023, to make clear that Parker International, a predecessor of PMI and co-creator of the PMI Foods brand, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement to U.S. authorities.

Sasha Chavkin, The Associated Press

Meatpacker JBS says it paid equivalent of $11 million in ransomware attack

(Reuters) -Meatpacker JBS USA paid a ransom equivalent to $11 million following a cyberattack that disrupted its North American and Australian operations, the company's CEO said in a statement on Wednesday.  

 Reuters/Bing Guan FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: JBS USA Worthington pork plant in Minnesota

The subsidiary of Brazilian firm JBS SA halted cattle slaughtering at all of its U.S. plants for a day last week in response to the cyberattack, which threatened to disrupt food supply chains and further inflate already high food prices.

The cyberattack followed one last month on Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the United States. It disrupted fuel delivery for several days in the U.S. Southeast.

Ransom software works by encrypting victims' data. Typically hackers will offer the victim a key in return for cryptocurrency payments that can run into hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. The FBI said earlier this month that the agency was investigating about 100 different types of ransomware.

The JBS meat plants, producing nearly a quarter of America's beef, recovered faster than some meat buyers and analysts expected.

Video: U.S. says ransomware attack on meatpacker JBS likely from Russia (Reuters)

"This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally," said Andre Nogueira, CEO of JBS USA on the ransom payment. "However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers."

The Brazilian meatpacker's arm in the United States and Pilgrims Pride Corp, a U.S. chicken company mostly owned by JBS, lost less than one day's worth of food production. JBS is the world's largest meat producer.

Third parties are carrying out forensic investigations and no final determinations have been made, JBS said. Preliminary probe results show no company, customer or employee data was compromised in the attack, it said.

A Russia-linked hacking group is behind the cyberattack against JBS, a source familiar with the matter said last week. The Russia-linked cyber gang goes by the name REvil and Sodinokibi, the source said.

The Wall Street journal reported on Wednesday that the JBS ransom payment was made in bitcoin.

The Justice Department on Monday recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline Co, cracking down on hackers who launched the attack.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Grant McCool and Christopher Cushing)

COVID-19 shuts down half of Canada’s beef supply A COVID-19 outbreak in a Cargill plant at High River, Alberta has shut down almost half of Canada’s beef supply, leaving many farmers with no place to sell their cattle. Nearly all beef produced in Canada is processed by three high-volume, high-throughput meat packing plants: Cargill’s High River facility, the JBS plant in Brooks, Alberta and the smaller Cargill plant in Guelph, Ontario. The two Alberta plants have 85% of Canada’s beef slaughter capacity and both are now grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks. While this choke point gives US-based Cargill and Brazilian JBS tremendous power over both cattle prices paid to farmers and the grocery store beef prices paid by consumers, the pandemic outbreaks show it is also one of the weakest links in Canada’s food system. This week a major COVID-19 outbreak in Cargill’s Alberta plant and a smaller outbreak at the JBS plant have required slow-downs at the JBS plant and a shut-down of the Cargill facility to protect the health of plant workers and the wider community. This also has a domino effect through the food system. Demand for cattle has collapsed, and if supplies dwindle, retail beef prices will likely rise. Without intervention, the price difference between the price of cattle and grocery store beef will end up harming both farmers and consumers while enhancing the already large profits of JBS and Cargill. “Excessive concentration of ownership and centralization of beef processing, supported and encouraged by our federal and provincial governments, has now put the health of workers, the beef supply and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers in jeopardy,” said Iain Aitken, National Farmers Union (NFU) member and Manitoba beef producer. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of the Cargill worker who lost her life to COVID 19.” “Farmers need emergency support so we can take care of our livestock until the plants ramp up again. Health and safety come first, but you can’t tell the cows to stop eating and growing until the crisis is over,” said Ian Robson, Deleau Manitoba mixed farmer and NFU Board member. “We need a price floor to make sure that Cargill and JBS don’t take advantage of this crisis to reduce prices. Today’s government must not make the same kind of mistakes as during the BSE Mad Cow crisis when the giant packers pocketed support program money and put hundreds of family farms out of business.” The NFU also urges emergency support to lay the groundwork for a more resilient and fair meat sector in Canada. “The NFU’s vision is for a food policy based on food sovereignty,” said Tim Dowling, grassfed beef producer from the Kingston, Ontario area. “Our food system would then support more family farmers providing more food for more Canadians by focussing on building up our capacity to serve local and regional markets across the country.” In 2008 the NFU published a comprehensive study of Canada’s cattle industry, analysing the development meat packing companies’ concentration, the impacts on cattle prices for farmers, and offering solutions that would reorient the system towards a more resilient beef sector. Its recommendations are more valid than ever today. “The COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call and an opportunity to rebuild our economy in ways that work for people, and which have the resilience to manage the crisis conditions that will undoubtedly occur in the future,” concluded Aitken. For the complete NFU cattle report, please visit The Farm Crisis and the Cattle Sector: Toward a New Analysis and New Solutions – 30 – PDF Concentration of meat packing makes Canada’s food system vulnerable  April 22, 2020 Meat packing concentration makes Canada’s food system vulnerable The National Farmers Union (NFU) offers heartfelt condolences to family and friends of the Cargill beef packing plant worker who lost her life to COVID-19 on April 20. The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing many vulnerabilities in Canada’s food system. The excessive concentration of ownership and centralization of beef processing has put the health of workers, the beef supply and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers in jeopardy. As of April 21, Cargill is finally idling its plant at High River, Alberta after one death, at least 358 cases ofCOVID-19 among workers and about 150 more confirmed cases related to the Cargill plant through family and community spread. There is also a COVID-19 outbreak at the JBS meatpacking plant in Brooks, Alberta area, where 67 people have tested positive. Cargill’s Alberta plant normally slaughters and processes 4,500 head of cattle per day, which is nearly half of Canada’s total beef processing capacity. The JBS Brook’s facility’s daily beef slaughter capacity is 4,200 head per day The Cargill beef plant in Guelph, Ontario has a slaughter capacity of 1,500 head per day. Nearly all of the beef sold in Canadian grocery stores and exported from Canada comes from these three high-volume, high-throughput meat packing plants. Cargill’s High River facility, the JBS plant in Brooks, Alberta and the Cargill plant in Guelph, Ontario together process over 95% of the beef in Canada, as well as nearly all of Canada’s $3 billion worth of beef exports. Cargill, with headquarters in the USA, is the world’s largest private company. In 2018 the family members that control Cargill Inc. got $643 million in the company’s the biggest payout since 2010, according to Bloomberg. JBS is a Brazilian corporation and the world’s largest meat company. Its net profit in 2018 was nearly $US 50 billion, a 10% increase over the previous year. These two foreign-owned companies completely dominate Canada’s beef sector. Canada has just 17 other federally licenced beef slaughter facilities, all small and many serving specialized markets. The provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have no federally licenced abattoirs for beef. Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan each have one facility; BC and Manitoba each have just two, all of them are small. There are also provincially licenced abattoirs, which in 2019 slaughtered a total of 153,859 head of cattle, the equivalent of 15 days of output from the threelargest federally inspected plants. JBS and Cargill control the flow of beef through Canada’s food system and to export markets. Their three processing plants form a choke point that gives them undue influence over the price of cattle paid to farmers and the price of beef paid by consumers in the grocery store. While this choke point gives Cargill and JBS tremendous power, it is also one of the weakest links in Canada’s food system. Slow-downs and shut-downs necessary to protect the health of plant workers also have a domino effect on cattle producers. Farmers expecting to sell their livestock find demand has collapsed. Prices are falling and farmers are faced with selling well below the cost of production or continuing to feed and care for cattle while waiting for an opportunity to sell. Meanwhile if grocery store supplies dwindle, retail beef prices will likely rise, especially if JBS and Cargill raise their wholesale prices. The price difference between what farmers are paid and what consumers pay for their meat will be captured by the big retailers and/or JBS and Cargill, to enhance these companies’ already large profits. Health and safety for workers and the public must come first. The failure of Cargill and JBS to implement changes to permit safe operations during the pandemic is creating a larger crisis in the food system in addition to its health impacts. Farmers now require emergency support to allow them to continue feeding cattle that no longer have a market.  Price floors must be put in place to ensure Cargill and JBS do not take advantage of this crisis to reduce prices they or their captive feedlot suppliers payfor cattle. The lessons of the BSE crisis must be applied to ensure that the giant packers do not take all the value of government support programs for themselves. Any emergency support for farmers and ranchers coping with the precipitous drop in demand must meet the needs of cow-calf producers, and independent feedlots and backgrounders. The NFU also urges emergency support be designed to lay the groundwork for a more resilient and fair meat sector in Canada. In 1988 there were 119 federally inspected beef packing plants in Canada, all were 100% Canadian owned. For the past three decades, Canadian governments have measured success in agriculture by export volumes. The measuring stick is Canada’s share of global exports – not the quality and value of food being produced for Canadians, the livelihoods of Canadian farmers, nor the prosperity of rural communities. The pursuit of maximum exports has resulted in a corporate beef sector that extracts all it can from workers, farmers, tax-payers, consumers and agricultural ecosystems. The National Farmers Union advocates for a food sovereignty-based food policy for Canada that would promote more high-quality food produced by Canadian ranchers and farmers on the tables of families across the country. A key strategy to achieve this would be developing domestic markets and localized distribution systems with direct, fair and transparent distribution chains. In 2008 the NFU published a comprehensive study of Canada cattle industry, analysing the development meat packing companies’ concentration, the impacts on cattle prices for farmers, and offering solutions that would reorient the system towards a more resilient beef sector. Its recommendations include:  Create and implement a national meat strategy to better serve the economic, nutritional, social, community development, food production, and environmental goals of Canadians in all regions.  Shift the location, ownership, and conduct of our beef packing plants to reduce its geographic concentration (nearly all capacity is currently in southern Alberta) and ownership concentration, so that our packing plants are spread across the nation, focused on serving local and regional markets, under diversified ownership and providing meat of the highest possible nutrition and safety.  Ban captive supply – feedlots owned or controlled by JBS and Cargill which they use to depress prices paid to producers.  Tailor food safety regulations to encourage local abattoirs to develop Canadian markets for organic beef, grass-finished beef, bison, and other specialty livestock and that create high-value deli meats and processed foods.  Recognize that dispersed local abattoirs with shorter supply chains are also key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our meat production system. These recommendations are more valid than ever today. The COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call and an opportunity to rebuild our economy in ways that work for people, and which have the resilience to manage the crisis conditions that will undoubtedly occur in the future. For the complete NFU cattle report, please visit The Farm Crisis and the Cattle Sector: Toward a New Analysis and New Solutions SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CARGILL https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BEEF https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=MEAT+PACKING https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=COVID19 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=JBS https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ALBERTA https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=NFU https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=GROCERY

OPERATES IN ALBERTA

Meat-packing Giant JBS USA Shuts Down Systems Following Cyberattack

By Ionut Arghire on June 01, 2021

JBS USA, the US subsidiary of the world's largest meat processing company, said Monday that some operations were shut down following a cyberattack that affected its North American and Australian IT network.

Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, JBS USA (JBS Foods) is a global food company wholly owned by Brazil-based JBS S.A., the largest meat processing firm in the world. In addition to the United States, JBS has operations in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Europe.

In a statement, the company announced that an “organized cybersecurity attack” identified on Sunday impacted servers used in support of its North American and Australian IT systems.

The cyberattack does threaten the food supply chain and could lead to shorateds and price increases.

“The company took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company's global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation,” JBS USA said.

[ Also Read: Cybersecurity Threats to the Food Supply Chain ]

AFP reported that the company’s Australian facilities have been “paralysed by the attack,” with up to 10,000 meat workers being sent home without pay.

The company claimed that its backup servers were not impacted by the incident and that it has already started the recovery operations, to have systems back online as soon as possible.

JBS USA also notes that it hasn’t found evidence that customer, employee, or supplier data might have been compromised or misused during the attack, but warns of possible delays in transactions.

“Resolution of the incident will take time, which may delay certain transactions with customers and suppliers,” the company said.

JBS has not shared any technical details regarding the incident, but it may be a ransomware attack.

SecurityWeek has contacted JBS for clarifications on the incident, but hasn’t received a reply yet.