JBS advocates for increased climate financing for regenerative agriculture
In the panel "Connecting the value chain: from the field to the plate", held during COP28, JBS Global Sustainability Director, Jason Weller, demonstrated how the Company is prioritizing sustainable production and combating climate action in its investments. "We are using various methods — including green bonds, self-financing, and public-private partnerships- to provide resources for climate action. And, above all, we are trying to simplify and focus on what is most important, which is how we can increase the economic profitability and sustainable production capacity of family farmers, on which, ultimately, we depend for our food systems". The company has emphasized that less than 2% of climate financing is allocated to small producers, according to the UN.
The vast scale and complexity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the food system also lead the Company to advocate for joint action among NGOs, civil society, public and private sectors, and large-scale mobilization of financial tools to invest in system improvements and catalyze projects in the supply chain. "If you're not thinking about how to design interventions and practices that truly benefit productivity and profitability, that is, the overall ability of the rural producer to succeed economically, that is not sustainable", Weller stated.
According to the executive, the food production system does not need more metrics and robust and complex data systems. "We already have a lot of information available. All that is needed is for it to be consolidated and simplified and to reach the producers", he points out.
Weller also argues that producers today already have the will and care for their production, and many solutions come from the land. "For me, it was impactful to see the level of care and pride that pork producers, for example, have in our operations, a really high level of innovation. Over the past decade, they have managed to reduce the carbon intensity of protein production in the high-productivity system in the UK by 50%", he said.
According to the executive, the same level of commitment is also present in Australia, where the Company has an agricultural assurance program with support from experts for cattle producers in the East and South of the country. Weller explained that the company has been in talks about incorporating regenerative grazing management systems, not just in pastures and paddocks, but in open systems. And discussions on how to improve care, animal welfare, and, essentially, how to manage these large intact ecosystems. "We are looking not only at cattle production but also at biodiversity and other services that are really important to maintain the vitality of our systems. So, we have a great opportunity to engage these producers, especially from family properties, to take care of the resources we need and depend on to feed the world", he said.
In the emissions reduction front, JBS has been focused on collaborating with industry partners to develop greenhouse gas (GHG) "fingerprints" for value chains, using them to unlock targeted actions. According to Weller, it is necessary to build not only a GHG footprint but to understand it more deeply. "To understand the global climate impact of our company's direct and overall supply chain system, JBS has invested significant resources to build a 'bottom-up' emissions inventory, using the best available data from our more than 500 facilities. We learned that the best available methods for estimating GHG footprints do not provide the granularity needed to take targeted actions. That's why JBS is collaborating with supply chain partners to develop our own 'fingerprints", he explained.
With a high-resolution understanding of the emissions inventory of the value chain, the executive points out that JBS has a better understanding of relative emissions-and risks-for each business unit, production facility, and customer. "We will then be able to prioritize investment actions to address JBS's direct emissions while working with key suppliers and strategic customers to assess options to decarbonize primary food systems, also encompassing indirect emissions". All these efforts are part of JBS's strategy to become Net Zero by 2040.
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