The world’s biggest food company plans to beef up in America

Consumers outside Brazil may not be familiar with JBS, even though many will have tasted its products. But as the meat-packing colossus prepared to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on June 13th, its American competitors were quivering in their cowboy boots. The listing is designed to allow JBS, already the world’s biggest food company by revenue, to gobble up even more market share by tapping cheaper capital and attracting new investors. Yet it could also leave the firm vulnerable to litigation from its broad range of enemies, who include environmentalists as well as an unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats.