Burning Questions
Fellowship Award Winners

Raisa Ramos de Pina

Location: Brazil
Primary academic field: Anthropology
Award category: PhD Student

Topics to be Addressed during the Award Period:

Unmasking JBS's corporate profits and capital accumulation, state investments from the Brazil government, and foreign support, in perpetuating social inequalities and development challenges in Brazil

• Provide an in-depth analysis and critical assessment of the complex dynamics and interplay between JBS, public investment, foreign financial support, and social inequality in Brazil by:
  
  • Analyzing documents such as JBS company annual reports; board meeting memos; stock market announcements; NGO reports.
  • Collecting information from academic theses and reviews on JBS.
  • Identifying JBS company annual income; company global acquisitions; executives' wages; attention the issue of inequality was addressed in Board meetings and public presentations; times JBS was accused of crimes in Brazil (corruption, illegal deforestation, labor rights).
  • Plotting timeline of public investments and foreign support in the last decade.
  • Contrasting JBS's gains with up-to-date figures regarding: Sub-national GDPs (focusing on the 16 states it has operations); public requests for government food assistance program.
  • Contrasting JBS executives'wages with per capita income of the states JBS operates; average wage for meat industry workers in Brazil.
• The primary objective is to use the case of JBS to deepen one's understanding of capital accumulation and its links to social inequalities in Brazil.

Some of the Things We Really Liked when We Read the Application:

• This is a critique of JBS (the world's largest meat company) from a rare but powerful perspective. It also serves as a strong case of capital accumulation's links to uneven development in the Global South for the benefit of an elite minority.
• The applicant has over a decade of experience in communications, campaigning, and public relations.