Our response to the JBS cyberattack

Published to the newsletter June 17, 2020

Hello,

We've been closely watching a huge industry story that broke two weeks ago: the JBS cyberattack.

JBS is a massive company that runs about a quarter of all American slaughterhouses. They were attacked by hackers early in the month and eventually paid an $11 million ransom to regain control of their plants. The shutdown causes industry-wide worries about rising meat prices and left farmers concerned that they wouldn't be able to process their animals in time.

To be clear: Baron's is fine. We were not hacked.

We were able to stock up when we heard about the attack, and are in constant communication with our suppliers to keep our business running smoothly.

But the JBS attack revealed an issue that the meat industry has been worried about for years: the centralization of slaughterhouses.

Three huge companies (JBS, Tyson, and Cargill) run almost all American slaughterhouses. It's a dangerous situation that has lead to widespread abuses of both labor and health safety protocols. It not only squeezes out small slaughterhouses, but also puts unreasonable pressure on small farmers.

Animals have to be processed at specific times in their life to get consistent meat quality. Small farmers don't have the same negotiating power big farmers do, making it almost impossible for them to have their animals processed at a reasonable rate. This puts extra financial pressure on small farmers and makes their meat more expensive.

As a retail butcher shop, we don't have any control over which slaughterhouse our suppliers use. But we do work with many different small farmers to get you the best quality meat available while supporting the industry we care about.

It looks like the JBS CEO may be called to Congress to testify about this attack. If we do have any updates on this story, we'll let you know.

Best,

AJ with Baron's