Media release – Neighbours of Fish Farming, 29 November 2021

Brazil’s Batista Brothers Invited to Tasmania After purchase of Huon Aquaculture

NOFF will formally launch a campaign in the Hobart Town Hall tomorrow, (Tuesday Nov 30 at 1230pm) calling on Australia’s big supermarkets to join Tasmanians in demanding the salmon industry start an immediate transition to land-based production. (Attached)

Neighbours of Fish Farming has invited the two Brazilian brothers who now control Tasmania’s second biggest salmon producer to visit the state and learn first-hand about the impact of their business on the state’s waterways. (letter attached)

The Batista brothers, Joseley and Wesley, need to be confronted by Tasmanians and discover for themselves that the salmon industry no longer has community support in the state.

They recently bought the struggling Huon Aquaculture for $450 million.

NOFF recognises the giant multinational company the brothers control, JBS, has a shocking global record for corruption, animal welfare abuse, environmental vandalism and undermining the rights of workers.

Joseley Batista has described corruption as “the name of the game” while he and Wesley have both spent time in jail for industrial-scale bribery of 1,900 legislators.

What the Batista brothers don’t realise is that Tasmanians have a reputation for standing up to carpetbaggers who think they can do what they want, reaping profits but never paying the price.

The collapse of wood-chip company, Gunns, showed what Tasmanians can achieve when they set their minds to it.

Clearly the people who run JBS Australia have failed to warn the Brazilian brothers what a catastrophe their investment is likely to produce.

Defending our Environment Motion to the “Eating Salmon? Killing Tasmania” Public Meeting at the Hobart Town Hall November 30, 2021 12.30-1.30pm

We are here today to say to all Australians who care about the environment: Don’t buy the lie. We call on Woolworths, Coles, and IGA to honour their public claims of sustainability by using their power to support the immediate transition to sustainable land-based salmon farming to stop the destruction of Tasmania’s waterways.