American Stewards of Liberty | Major Banks Told to Stop Financing Livestock Industry

The attempt by the environmental movement to destroy the livestock industry has been ongoing for decades.  The various campaigns have all had a common theme – cattle are bad for the environment.  However, the latest iteration is taking on a greater sense of urgency.  

In an open letter dated September 12, 2024, 105 climate groups, led by Friends of the Earth, are now urging banks, particularly Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase (the “Big Three”) to stop financing industrial livestock production claiming the livestock industry is fueling the climate crisis. 

These banks are three of over 140 that have all committed to a United Nations “Net Zero Banking Alliance” to “align their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”  This Alliance pressures its members to achieve “credible science-based net zero targets for 2030 or sooner…”

Apparently, these banks don’t appear to be fulfilling their commitments to net-zero emissions in their lending practices, and this new campaign is to “name and shame the worst offenders.”

Using the “climate crisis” has become every environmental group’s excuse to promote their agendas.  The Biden administration has used it for every action they have taken over the past four years, including their 30×30 Land Grab, the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to fund their “Green New Deal”, and hundreds of other federal programs being used to destroy private property and our economy.  

Now, these environmental groups claim the climate crisis is intensifying and to solve the “crisis,” banks worldwide and in the U.S. must “slash their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to the loans, underwriting, investments, and other financial services they provide.”

In a report called “Still Butchering the Planet,” these groups claim they need to control livestock-related emissions from the world’s largest 55 industrial livestock companies – spanning the beef, dairy, pork, poultry, and animal feed sectors because they have “breached the 1.5*C warming limit for an entire year for the first time.”  

They want all global livestock emissions to be reduced by 50% by 2030 and 61% by 2035.  

To achieve this, they demand all new financing to industrial livestock companies be stopped immediately, starting with the listed 55 companies named in their Report starting with the “highest-emitting companies such as JBS, Cargill, Tyson, Marfrig and Minerva.”  

They argue that these banks can make a significant impact by shifting a relatively small amount of their capital away from high-emitting livestock corporations.  By doing so, they would not only reduce their own carbon footprint, but also demonstrate a commitment to addressing the climate crisis and their Net-Zero commitment.

Alarmingly, the Report claims that because the core business of the 55 companies is the mass-production of meat and dairy, they are at an “unsustainable scale, with well over 50% of their revenue coming from animal protein…making them particularly unreformable” with “defunding these companies the only appropriate action banks and governments can take.”

Specifically, the group demands 1) no new corporate loans or revolving credit facilities, or renewal of these types of finance, 2) no underwriting of share or bond issuances, and 3) divest all shareholdings and bond holdings within the next three years.

For policymakers, they demand 1) private banks be regulated to ensure they phase out all finance for industrial livestock corporations, 2) divest all public pension funds from industrial livestock companies within the next five years, 3) introduce taxes on polluters including livestock companies, their financial funders and those who profit from them to pay reparations for the loss and damage they cause, and five other industry-destroying measures.

The “climate crisis” has become the excuse for left-leaning organizations and governments to take over and regulate entire industries, take private property, destroy our economic system, and implement socialistic programs.  

The banking industry has succumbed to this socialist agenda and all agriculture is going to have to stand and defend our livestock industry if we are to be able to feed our nation and the world.