Cattle graze on deforested land in Brazil's Jamanxim National Forest.

Recently, JBS USA, a subsidiary of the largest meat processing company in the world, reached a $1.1 million settlement with the office of state Attorney General Letitia James, who sued the company in February 2024 for greenwashing. James’ office says it plans to use the settlement money to promote climate-smart agriculture on New York farms. Instead, we believe the settlement money should be used to correct the record on meat’s climate impacts — using the same playbook JBS used.

In the lawsuit, James contended that JBS USA made unsubstantiated, outlandish claims on its climate change contributions, including a taking out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times in April 2021 that stated: “Bacon, chicken wings, and steak with net zero emissions. It’s possible.”

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The JBS ad said the company would achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and eliminate Amazon deforestation from its supply chain within five years.

These statements came as a big surprise to us. We had just published a paper identifying JBS as a major contributor to climate change. For one, JBS did not include land-use change in its emissions calculations, which is........

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