Why did Sinergia not catch this “mistake” when validating ACE’s calculations? In their response, Sinergia claims they validated ACE’s calculations.
Why is Sinergia now indicating this “mistake” has been fixed, when it has not?
And most importantly, why did Sinergia/ACE delete Column W (where Sinergia stated that “JBS published in 2023 the commitment to banning ear notching by 2023”) right before publishing their response, and not add any note stating that this cell had been deleted?[2]Sinergia/ACE added notes for every other edit that was made to Sinergia’s spreadsheet after February 20th, 2025, and this was by far the biggest edit (Column W contained more text than any other column in the spreadsheet, and was completely deleted).
We believe these pervasive issues point towards this not being a typo.
Finally, we’d like to clarify what we think the biggest issue is here. Sinergia’s response states:
“Sinergia’s Brazilian team, which is native in Portuguese but not English, made a minor mistake in the spreadsheet shared with ACE. It stated “Committed to banning ear notching by 2023,” when it should have said “Committed to banning ear notching in 2023.””
Right before Sinergia published their response,Sinergia/ACE deleted Column W from their spreadsheet, in which Sinergia claimed: “JBS published in 2023 the commitment to banning ear notching by 2023.”[2] This evidence that was deleted suggests that Sinergia’s “mistake” was not a translation issue like they indicate.
It is completely inappropriate for Sinergia/ACE to delete this evidence right before Sinergia published their response, and not note that this evidence was deleted. Sinergia/ACE added notes for every other edit that was made to Sinergia’s spreadsheetafter February 20th, 2025, and this was by far the biggest edit (Column W contained more text than any other column in the spreadsheet, and was completely deleted).
Destruction of evidence is completely inexcusable.
Sinergia/ACE deleted Column W (which contained Cell W10) shortly before Sinergia published their response. We know that Column W had notbeen deleted as of 3/15/2025, as we took a screen recording of the spreadsheet on that date (skip to 1:39, notice Column W has not been deleted yet). We know that Column W had been deleted as of 3/20/2025 (the day before Sinergia published their response) since we downloaded the spreadsheet on that date. We also have a recording of Sinergia’s spreadsheet from 3/21/2025 where Column W has been deleted. Sinergia published their response on 3/21/2025.
Vetted causes, I agree with you that Sinergia shouldn’t be deleting column W, especially at this time when this is happening. I think they should put it back up and add more explanatory comments if necessary.
That said, I think you are perhaps assuming too much bad faith in this whole ordeal. It seems extremely plausible to me that an ESL person would confuse a small word like this and I think you are coming at this from a perspective where you are assuming mal-intent and are finding corroborating evidence for this.
If you look at ACE’s response, Column W was never meant to be shown in the public version—they dropped the ball by forgetting to follow their standard processes for redacting things at charities’ requests for confidentiality reasons—and the recent deletion was an action they took, not Sinergia.
Hi Rebecca, thank you for your reply.
If this was a “typo” as you suggest:
Why did Sinergia say the “Transition deadline” for JBS’s alleged ear notching commitment is 2023 in Cell R10?
Why did Sinergia say JBS “Committed to banning ear notching by 2023” in Cell K10?
Why did Sinergia take credit for helping millions of JBS’s pigs that they did not (i.e. JBS pigs who have their ears notched from 2023 to 2026)? [1]
Why did ACE not catch this “mistake” when making their calculations and evaluating Sinergia’s work?
Why did Sinergia not catch this “mistake” when validating ACE’s calculations? In their response, Sinergia claims they validated ACE’s calculations.
Why is Sinergia now indicating this “mistake” has been fixed, when it has not?
And most importantly, why did Sinergia/ACE delete Column W (where Sinergia stated that “JBS published in 2023 the commitment to banning ear notching by 2023”) right before publishing their response, and not add any note stating that this cell had been deleted?[2] Sinergia/ACE added notes for every other edit that was made to Sinergia’s spreadsheet after February 20th, 2025, and this was by far the biggest edit (Column W contained more text than any other column in the spreadsheet, and was completely deleted).
We believe these pervasive issues point towards this not being a typo.
Finally, we’d like to clarify what we think the biggest issue is here. Sinergia’s response states:
“Sinergia’s Brazilian team, which is native in Portuguese but not English, made a minor mistake in the spreadsheet shared with ACE. It stated “Committed to banning ear notching by 2023,” when it should have said “Committed to banning ear notching in 2023.””
Right before Sinergia published their response, Sinergia/ACE deleted Column W from their spreadsheet, in which Sinergia claimed: “JBS published in 2023 the commitment to banning ear notching by 2023.”[2] This evidence that was deleted suggests that Sinergia’s “mistake” was not a translation issue like they indicate.
It is completely inappropriate for Sinergia/ACE to delete this evidence right before Sinergia published their response, and not note that this evidence was deleted. Sinergia/ACE added notes for every other edit that was made to Sinergia’s spreadsheet after February 20th, 2025, and this was by far the biggest edit (Column W contained more text than any other column in the spreadsheet, and was completely deleted).
Destruction of evidence is completely inexcusable.
Pig Welfare Commitments Sinergia Allegedly Secured in 2023 - See Cells R10 Through Y10
Sinergia/ACE deleted Column W (which contained Cell W10) shortly before Sinergia published their response. We know that Column W had not been deleted as of 3/15/2025, as we took a screen recording of the spreadsheet on that date (skip to 1:39, notice Column W has not been deleted yet). We know that Column W had been deleted as of 3/20/2025 (the day before Sinergia published their response) since we downloaded the spreadsheet on that date. We also have a recording of Sinergia’s spreadsheet from 3/21/2025 where Column W has been deleted. Sinergia published their response on 3/21/2025.
Vetted causes, I agree with you that Sinergia shouldn’t be deleting column W, especially at this time when this is happening. I think they should put it back up and add more explanatory comments if necessary.
That said, I think you are perhaps assuming too much bad faith in this whole ordeal. It seems extremely plausible to me that an ESL person would confuse a small word like this and I think you are coming at this from a perspective where you are assuming mal-intent and are finding corroborating evidence for this.
If you look at ACE’s response, Column W was never meant to be shown in the public version—they dropped the ball by forgetting to follow their standard processes for redacting things at charities’ requests for confidentiality reasons—and the recent deletion was an action they took, not Sinergia.
Hi Marcus,
Thanks for your comment. You can see Sinergia’s reply here.