Factory farm giant JBS linked to illegal grazing on indigenous land, yet remains heavily financed by major banks

Beef from cattle illegally raised on protected Indigenous land in the Brazilian Amazon has once again entered global markets through the supply chains of JBS, the world’s largest meat processor.

Greenpeace Brazil’s latest investigation, published in September 2025, exposes new evidence linking JBS’s European exports to cattle laundering operations conducted by Brazilian rancher Mauro Fernando Schaedler. 

Despite ongoing controversies which have resulted in the company being blacklisted by a number of international investors, the company remains heavily financed by major retail banks.

Illegal cattle laundering and JBS supply chains

According to Greenpeace, Schaedler’s farm illegally grazed cattle within Indigenous land boundaries before transferring them to another property to mask their origins - a practice known as cattle laundering. Between 2018 and 2025, Fazenda Itapirana supplied these cattle to JBS slaughterhouses which are authorised for beef exports to major global markets including the European Union, the UK, Canada, and Hong Kong.

The Greenpeace report confirmed that beef exported from the Barra do Garças unit reached Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK, raising serious questions about persistent supply chain opacity despite JBS’s decades-long pledges to ensure deforestation-free and ethically sourced meat.​

Financial complicity: Major banks, customer deposits and JBS

A parallel investigation by Global Witness and FoodRise UK shows the financial sector’s significant role in sustaining JBS’s destructive operations. From 2018 to 2023, British banking giant Barclays earned more than US $1.7 billion in fees and loans from financing JBS. Barclays stands as the company’s largest global creditor. 

The financing persisted even as evidence mounted that JBS sourced cattle from illegally deforested and occupied Indigenous territories such as the Apyterewa land in Pará state, where an estimated 8,000 cows from invaded Indigenous areas entered JBS’s supply chain during that period.

These operations have fuelled deforestation equivalent to tens of thousands of football fields, as documented by Global Witness’s Beef, Banks and the Brazilian Amazon series.​

Major banks continue to finance JBS despite ongoing controversies

Barclays, HSBS, Santander, LLoyds, Natwest and Standard Chartered provided at least $77 billion to meatpacking giants including JBS between 2015 and 2022. 

Barclays stands as the largest financier, despite publicly strengthening its forest risk commodity policy, claiming to end financing for clients contributing to deforestation. However, investigative reports indicate that the bank continues to underwrite and invest in meatpackers with active deforestation links, including JBS, under loopholes that permit financing via subsidiaries and indirect loans. Analysts warn that such inconsistencies undermine global targets to halt deforestation by 2030 and violate the bank’s stated commitments on climate and human rights.​

You can make a difference

With major banks continuing to finance JBS to the tune of billions of dollars, customer deposits may be used to finance these loans. 

Bank for Nature is working tirelessly to support consumers ensure that their money is not supporting deforestation or indigenous land grabs linked to factory farming. 

You can easily check your bank's involvement in factory farming at bankfornature.org, and send them a strong message to cease their financing of the sector or move your money to a better bank. With many others using our tool, this is a powerful way to drastically reduce the financing provided to factory farming.