Smithfield Foods
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Smithfield Foods, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Type | Public (NYSE: SFD) |
| Founded | 1936 |
| Headquarters | Smithfield, Virginia, USAUnited States, France, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom; joint ventures in Brazil, Mexico, Spain, China |
| Key people | Joseph W. Luter, III (Chairman), C. Larry Pope (CEO) |
| Industry | Food |
| Products | Meat |
| Revenue | $11 Billion USD |
| Employees | 51,000 |
| Website | [1] |
Smithfield Foods, Inc. is the world’s largest pork producer and processor. The company raises 14 million hogs a year and processes 27 million. The company produced 5.9 billion pounds of pork and 1.4 billion pounds of fresh beef in 2006.
Smithfield produces many familiar brands, including Smithfield, Butterball, John Morrell, Farmland Foods, Gwaltney, Patrick Cudahy, Krakus, Cook's Ham, and Stefano’s.
Smithfield started as Smithfield Packing Company, now its largest subsidiary, and grew by acquiring companies such as,Farmland Foods, Eckrich, and Premium Standard Farms.
Smithfield headquarters at Smithfield, Virginia, with operations in 26 states and 9 countries.
Contents |
[edit] Environmental record
Smithfield has come under criticism for the millions of gallons of fecal matter that it produces and stores in holding ponds, untreated. In a four year period, in North Carolina alone, 4.7 million gallons of hog fecal matter were released into the state's rivers. Workers and residents near Smithfield plants have reported health problems, and have complained about constant, overpowering stenches of hog feces.[1] In 1997, Smithfield was fined $12.6 million for violation of the federal Clean Water Act.[2] "The fine was the third-largest civil penalty ever levied under the act by the EPA. It amounted to .035 percent of Smithfield's annual sales."
The hog industry in North Carolina came under scrutiny in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd flooded much of the eastern part of the state, including a number of fecal matter holding ponds (lagoons, in industry parlance). Many of the hog farms that contracted with Smithfield were accused of polluting the state's rivers.[3]
In the wake of Hurricane Floyd, Smithfield entered a settlement in 2000 with North Carolina Attorney General Mike Easley to fund development of environmentally sound waste management technologies for use on North Carolina swine farms. As part of this settlement, Smithfield committed $15 million to fund research at North Carolina State University.[4] In addition, the company agreed to make an annual contribution of $2 million to fund environmental enhancement grants in the state.
The environmental effects of Smithfield's slaughterhouses have come under much less criticism than its industrial farming and the fecal matter that is a byproduct of the high concentration of pigs without adequate sewage treatment facilities. Consequently many of its slaughterhouses have been environmentally certified by the International Organization for Standardization, .[5]
In 2006, Smithfield's hog-production subsidiary Murphy-Brown agreed to adopt new measures to enhance environmental protections at its hog production facilities in North Carolina in a landmark environmental pact with the Waterkeeper Alliance, once one of Smithfield's biggest critics.[6][7]
[edit] Labor dispute
The Smithfield Packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, has been the site of an ongoing dispute between the company and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), which has been trying to organize the plant for over a decade. Employees at the plant voted against the union in 1994 and 1997, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) later alleged that unfair election conduct had occurred and ordered a new election.
In 2006, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the NLRB, and Smithfield agreed to comply with the NLRB's remedies to ensure a fair election.[8] Smithfield and the employees at Tar Heel have repeatedly called on the UFCW to hold a new election and the company has agreed to pay half the cost of an independent observer to ensure a fair election process, but the union has refused the offer arguing that Smithfield will not allow a fair election and should recognize card-check organizing.[9] After a year-long series of public demonstrations, several lockouts, a number of protests and a shareholder meeting which was disrupted by shareholders supporting the union, the UFCW called for a boycott of Smithfield products. In October 2007, Smithfield countered by filing a federal RICO Act lawsuit against UFCW.[10]
[edit] Sow crates
Smithfield confines pregnant sows to 7 ft by 2 ft (2.1m by 0.6m) gestation stalls, where they spend most of their lives. As the sows grow larger, they are unable to turn around, and must choose between standing or sleeping on their chests. Illegal in several U.S. states and Sweden, gestation stalls are to be phased out in the E.U. by 2013. After several supermarket chains and McDonalds expressed concern about the crates, Smithfield announced that in ten years it would no longer use sow crates.[11]
The Humane Society of the United States called the announcement "perhaps the most monumental advance for animal welfare in history of modern American agribusiness."[12]
[edit] Charitable giving
Established in 2002, the Smithfield-Luter Foundation is a non-profit organization that acts as the philanthropic wing of Smithfield Foods. The Foundation is dedicated primarily to providing scholarship opportunities to the children and grandchildren of Smithfield employees. Since its inception, the Foundation has granted 74 scholarships worth over $800,000.
The Foundation has also given $5 million to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia and $5 million to the University of Virginia Cancer Center in Charlottesville, Virginia; these one-time donations totaling $10 million amount to less than one thousandth of a single year's revenue.
The Foundation also provides ongoing support for its Learners to Leaders programs, begun in 2006, and which now operates in four locations: Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Denison, Iowa; and Norfolk, Virginia.[13]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Smithfield Foods official corporate site
- The Smithfield-Luter Foundation charitable giving foundation
- Smithfield Justice - anti-Smithfield website operated by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
- SmithfieldFacts - Smithfield Foods' anti-union website about the UFCW's effort to unionize the Tar Heel, NC facility.
[edit] References
- ^ "Boss Hog". Tietz, Jeff. Rolling Stone. 14 December 2006
- ^ SMITHFIELD FOODS FINED $12.6 MILLION. Environmental Protection Agency (August 8, 1997).
- ^ Future clouded for hog farmers. The News & Observer (October 2, 1999).
- ^ Smithfield Agreement. NCSU College of Agriculture & Life Sciences.
- ^ A Leader in ISO 14001 Certification. Smithfield Foods.
- ^ Testimony of Richard J. Dove, Waterkeeper Alliance. Senate Committee on Government Affairs (2002-03-02).
- ^ Waterkeeper Alliance and Smithfield Foods Reach Agreement on Environmental Pact. Waterkeeper Alliance (January 20, 2006).
- ^ Statement on NLRB decision. Smithfield Packing Co. (June 15, 2006).
- ^ Smithfield: Workers Want Union Vote. Associated Press (July 13, 2007).
- ^ Kris Maher, "Firms Use RICO to Fight Union Tactics," Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2007.
- ^ Kaufmann, Marc. "In Pig Farming, Growing Concern, Raising Sows in Crates Is Questioned", The Washington Post, June 2001.
- ^ HSUS Praises Smithfield Move to End Confinement of Pigs in Gestation Crates. The Humane Society of the United States (January 25, 2007).
- ^ Learners to Leaders | Local Programs
