JBS paid $11 million ransom

JBS USA said it paid $11 million in ransom in response to the May 30 criminal hack that began in Australia and spread to its operations in the United States and Canada.

When it paid the ransom, most of its operations were ongoing, the company said, but it paid to keep the hackers from stealing data. 

It said preliminary investigation indicates that no company, supplier or customers information has been compromised.

“This was a very difficult decision to make for our company and for me personally,” JBS USA CEO Andre Nogueira said in the statement. “However, we felt this decision had to be made to prevent any potential risk for our customers.”

JBS said its ability to quickly resolve the issues resulting from the attack was due to its cybersecurity protocols, redundant systems and encrypted backup servers. 

The company said it spends more than $200 million annually on IT and employs more than 850 IT professionals globally.

The company said it maintained constant communication with government officials throughout the incident.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has identified REvil, a criminal organization the agency said is likely based in Russia, as the group behind the cyberattack on JBS. 

                      

California sow crate ban challenged

The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) is intensifying its call for the United States. Supreme Court to review California’s Proposition 12, which bans sow crates and chicken cages.

NAMI said in a brief challenging the bill that according to the state's own proposed rule, the law would offer no benefit to consumers and would increase breeding sow mortality.

NAMI's brief also said the decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold California’s "unconstitutional and costly Proposition 12" directly conflicts with legal precedent in other circuits and from the Supreme Court itself, making it the appropriate vehicle to consider the issue of a state's power beyond its territorial borders.

“The recently proposed rule by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) admits there are no benefits to Californians as a result of Prop 12. 

“CDFA admits deaths of breeding sows will increase. Both are unintentional consequences of a costly and unconstitutional law,” Julie Anna Potts, NAMI president and chief executive officer, said in a press release.

 “Our petition to challenge the law has the support of more than 20 states and we think it should be reviewed by the Supreme Court.”

Animal activists protest chicken images

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture for allowing poultry companies to use labels depicting chickens and turkeys roaming free.

They say the labels are misleading because poultry are “factory farmed” in housing quite different from the pastoral imagery.

That fails to protect consumers from deceptive product labeling as required by the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Animal Legal Defense Fund said.

The lawsuit specifically cited Perdue Farms’ Fresh Line labels which showschickens and turkeys grazing outdoors in green grass under a bright sun.

“The USDA has a legal responsibility to ensure animal product sellers are labeling their products accurately,” Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells said in a press release Tuesday.

Oh my. Where does political correctness take us?

Transport Genie testing fifth-generation sensors

Transport Genie of Guelph has impressed a swine-industry researcher with its fifth-generation sensors for keeping track of conditions in transports.

Dr. Terry Fonstad, the associate dean of research with the University of Saskatchewan's College of Engineering, said the sensors need to stand up to a lot of challenges.

For example, pigs are curious and will start nibbling at sensors if they can reach them.

And the sensors need to survive pressure washing, including chemicals, vibrations, rain and sleet and snow and temperatures from plus or minus 40.

They must be able to measure and report temperature and humnidity on a real-time basis.

Fonstad said the fifth generation sensors have really got some good promise and there's probably going to be continuous development on it. 

It's the same common problem that we have in automated mining and automated agriculture, is that's sensing, communications, analytics and controls, he said.

Global study of zoonoses launches

The World Health Organization (WHO) and three other international bodies have formed a team of experts to help develop a global plan to prevent the spread of diseases from animals to humans, the WHO announced this week.

The One Health High-Level Expert Panel was an initiative launched by France and Germany late last year and held its inaugural meeting earlier in May.

It will advise the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health and the United Nations Environment Program on developing “risk assessment and surveillance frameworks” and establish “good practices to prevent and prepare for zoonotic outbreaks.”

The panel will also consider potential transmission risks in food production and distribution, urbanization and the construction of infrastructure, international travel and trade and activities that lead to biodiversity loss and climate change, the WHO said in a press release.

The panel will publish its first recommendations later this year.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is widely believed to have originated in wildlife trading networks in China and southeast Asia. The closest known genetic match of the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 has been found in bats.

A few years ago Canadians were asked to be vigilant about a flu-like virus that spread to and from pigs and people. It also spread from chickens to pigs.

Biden tosses $4 billion more to agriculture

After record-breaking subsidies under former U.S. President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden announced he has more than $4 billion to strengthen critical supply chains, including animal production and meat processing, through the Biden Administration's Build Back Better initiative. 

Through a mix of grants, loans and other financing mechanisms, the new effort is designed to strengthen the food system, support food production, improved processing, investments in distribution and aggregation and market opportunities, the United States Department of Agriculture said in a press release.

One initiative aims to address the shortage of small meat processing facilities across the country and the necessary local and regional food system infrastructure needed to support small- and medium-sized meat processing capacity.

The government also announced plans to make livestock pricing more transparent. Farmers have been complaining that the large packing plants and feedlot companies make private deals that are the true price-formers in the marketplace and that it’s not fair.

JBS buys another company

JBS S. A., already the largest meat packer in the world, has paid $164 million to buy Rifvalea which has 26 per cent of Australia’s pork market.

"With the acquisition of Rivalea, JBS becomes a leader in pork processing in Australia,” the company said.

“We will add important brands to our portfolio to create strong conditions to accelerate the growth of the value-added and branded businesses in the country, in addition to strengthening our export platform Gilberto Tomazoni,," chief executive officer of JBS Global, said.

Rivalea has two processing plants and more than 1,000 employees. The company sells well-known Australian consumer brands such as Riverview Farms, Family Chef and St. Bernard's.