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Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Company type	Public (NYSE: SFD)
Industry	Meat processing
Products	Processes 27 million pigs a year, producing six billion pounds of pork
Origins
Founded	1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company
Founders	Joseph W. Luter, Sr. Joseph W. Luter, Jr.
Locations
Head office	Smithfield, Virginia, United States
Operations	Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom, and 26 U.S. states
Leadership
Key people	Joseph W. Luter, III (chairman) C. Larry Pope (president and CEO) George H. Richter (president and COO, pork group) Joseph W. Luter, IV (executive vice president)
Revenue and workforce
Revenue	US$ 13 billion (2012)
Employees	46,050
Core brands
Armour, Carando, Cook's Ham, Curly's Foods, Eckrich, Farmland, Gwaltney, Healthy Ones, John Morrell, Kretschmar, Margherita, and Smithfield
Website
www.smithfieldfoods.com

Smithfield Foods, Inc. is the world's largest pork producer and processor. Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, it runs facilities in 26 U.S. states, including the largest slaughterhouse and meat-processing plant in the world, located in Tar Heel, North Carolina. It also has operations in Mexico and in 10 European countries, with a global total of over 46,000 employees and an annual revenue of $13 billion.

Smithfield was founded in 1936 by Joseph W. Luter and his son as the Smithfield Packing Company, now its largest subsidiary. From 1981 it began to purchase companies such as Eckrich, Farmland Foods of Kansas, Gwaltney of Smithfield, John Morrell, Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina, and Premium Standard Farms. It was able to grow as a result of its highly industrialized pig production, raising the animals using a vertical integration system of production that enables the company to control their development from conception to packing. Thousands of them are housed together in barns with metal roofs, known as CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), where they are permanently confined.

The company raises around 15 million pigs a year and processes 27 million, producing over six billion pounds of pork. It was the top pig slaughter operation in the United States in 2007, at 114,300 pigs a day, and along with three other companies slaughtered 56 percent of the cows processed there until it sold its beef group in 2008. Smithfield sells its products under a variety of brand names, including Cook's Ham, Gwaltney, John Morrell, Krakus Ham, Patrick Cudahy, Smithfield, and Stefano's. C. Larry Pope is the president and chief executive officer.

Company profile

The company traces its history to 1936, when Joseph W. Luter, Sr. and his son, Joseph W. Luter, Jr, opened the Smithfield Packing Company in Smithfield, Virginia. The latter served as chief executive officer (CEO) until his death in 1962. A grandson, Joseph W. Luter III, joined the company the same year, and in 1966 became chairman and CEO until Smithfield was taken over by Liberty Equities in 1969. The company hired Luter again as CEO in 1975 when it found itself in financial difficulties. His restructuring of the company is credited with its improved performance, and he remains on the board of directors. His son, Joseph W. Luter IV, is an executive vice president of Smithfield Foods and president of the Smithfield Packing Company, the parent company's largest subsidiary.

Template:Smithfield Foods Smithfield began to expand in 1981 with its purchase of its main competitor, Gwaltney of Smithfield. This was followed by the acquisition of almost 40 companies in the pork, beef and livestock industries between 1981 and around 2008. Patrick Cudahy was purchased in 1984 and Schluderberg-Kurdle in 1986. In 1992 the company opened the world's largest processing plant, a 973,000-square-foot facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, which in 2000 could process 32,000 pigs a day.

It purchased John Morrell & Co in the Midwest in 1995, Circle Four Farms in 1998, and in 1999 bought the three largest pig producers in the United States: Carroll's Foods, Tyson Foods Pork Group and Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina, at that point the largest producer. Jill Hobbs and Linda Young write that Smithfield's purchase of these three companies constituted a major structural change in the U.S. pig industry. Farmland Foods of Kansas City was added in 2003, as were Sara Lee's European Meats, ConAgra Foods, Butterball (the poultry producer), and Premium Standard Farms in 2007. It sold its 49 percent share in Butterball in 2008 for an estimated $175 million.

The acquisitions have caused concern among regulators in the United States regarding the company's control of the food supply. After Smithfield's purchase of Murphy Family Farms, the Agriculture Department described it as "absurdly big." As of 2006 four companies – Smithfield, Tyson, Swift & Company, and Cargill – were responsible for the production of 70 percent of pork in the United States.

The company had 46,050 employees in the United States, Mexico and Europe as of 2012, and an annual revenue of $13 billion. It raises 15.8 million pigs a year, producing 3.8 billion pounds of fresh pork and 2.7 billion pounds of packaged meat, sold as 50 brands of pork products and 200 gourmet foods. Along with specialty brands such as Paula Deen Collection, and international brands such as Weight Watchers, the company's 12 core brands are Armour, Carando, Cook's Ham, Curly's Foods, Eckrich, Farmland, Gwaltney, Healthy Ones, John Morrell, Kretschmar, Margherita, and Smithfield. The company also operates The Genuine Smithfield Ham Shoppe and a restaurant, Taste of Smithfield, both in Smithfield, Virginia.

Pig production

Vertical integration

Joseph Luter III introduced a "vertical integration" system in 1990, as a result of which the company was able to expand by over 1,000 percent between 1990 and 2005. Hobbs and Young write that full vertical integration is defined as one company owning two or more stages of the production-processing-distribution process. Smithfield contracted farmers who were moving out of tobacco farming as sales dropped, sending them piglets between eight to ten weeks old to be brought to market weights on diets controlled by Smithfield. Only farmers able to handle thousands of the company's pigs were contracted, meaning smaller farms went out of business. The system allows Smithfield to control every stage of pig production, from conception and birth to slaughter, processing and packing – known as "from squeal to meal" or "from birth to bacon."

Luter has said that "vertical integration gives you high quality, consistent products with consistent genetics. And the only way to do that is to control the process from the farm to the packing plant." Tyya N. Turner writes that in 1990 the company obtained 2,000 pigs and the exclusive right to their genetic lines from Britain's National Pig Development Company, and used them to create Smithfield Lean Generation Pork, which was certified by the American Heart Association for its low fat, salt, and cholesterol content. According to Luter, it was vertical integration that enabled this.

The pigs are housed together in their thousands in identical barns with metal roofs, known as CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). The floors of the buildings are slatted, allowing waste to be flushed into 30-feet-deep open-air pits the size of two football fields, referred to within the industry as lagoons. The area around one slaughterhouse can contain hundreds of these lagoons. Smithfield says the lagoons contain an impervious liner made to withstand leakage. Jeff Tietz writes that the waste – a mixture of excrement, urine, blood, afterbirths, stillborn pigs, drugs and other chemicals – overflows when it rains and that the liners can be punctured by rocks. Smithfield attributes the pink color of the waste to the health of the lagoons, writing that the color is "a sign of bacteria doing what it should be doing. It's indicative of lower odor and lower nutrient content." The company was fined $12.6 million in 1997 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for 6,900 violations of the Clean Water Act after discharging illegal levels of slaughterhouse waste into the Pagan River in Virginia.

Pregnant sows

The company keeps pregnant sows in gestation crates, where they spend most of their lives. As the sows grow larger, they are unable to turn around and must choose between sleeping on their chests or standing. They are given one week's rest after weaning, then impregnated through artificial insemination and returned to the crates. This cycle is maintained until litter size begins to decline, at which point the sow is replaced. After several supermarket chains and McDonald's expressed concern about the crates, Smithfield announced in 2007 that it would phase them out over ten years. In June 2009, the company said this could not be done because of operating losses. It said in 2011 that 30 percent of its sows would be moved to group housing by the end that year.

Environmental and animal welfare record

Emissions

Smithfield has come under criticism for the millions of gallons of untreated fecal matter it produces and stores in the lagoons. 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. Two years after it was fined $12.6 million by the EPA for illegal discharges in Virginia, the facilities in North Carolina came under scrutiny again when in 1999 Hurricane Floyd flooded a number of lagoons holding fecal matter, and many of the hog farms that contracted with Smithfield were accused of polluting the state's rivers.

Smithfield reached a settlement in March 2000 with the state of North Carolina, agreeing to pay the state $50 million over 25 years. Smithfield agreed to donate $1.3 million to clean up, North Carolina State University would receive $15 million to research the treatment of pig waste, and the North Carolina Foundation for Soil and Water Conservation, Ducks Unlimited and the North Carolina Coastal Federation would receive grants.

Company response

Ralph Deptolla writes that the company responded to the criticism by creating new executive positions to monitor the environmental issues, and hired Dennis Treacy, a former director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, as Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer. Treacy had previously been involved in the enforcement efforts against Smithfield. Deptolla writes that Smithfield also created an environmental management system (ESM), launching it in 2001 at its Murphy-Brown facilities.

In 2005 the company received ISO 14001 certification from the International Organization for Standardization for its hog production and processing facilities in the United States, with the exception of new acquisitions, and in 2009 14 plants in the United States and 21 in Romania received certification. Deptolla writes that 578 Smithfield facilities were ISO 14001-certified as of 2011. In 2006 its hog-production subsidiary Murphy-Brown reached an agreement with the Waterkeeper Alliance, once one of Smithfield's biggest critics, to adopt new measures to enhance environmental protection at the former's facilities in North Carolina. In 2009 the company said it had reduced greenhouse gas emissions at its plants by four percent since 2007, its processing emissions per 100 pounds of production by 62 percent, and its first-processing emissions per animal by 41 percent. Smithfield attributed the improvements to the divestiture of the beef group. In 2010 it released its ninth annual Corporate Social Responsibility report, and announced its appointment of a chief sustainability officer and two sustainability committees.

Use of antibiotics

Concerns were raised about the use by the company and its contractors of low doses of antibiotics to promote the pigs' growth, in addition to using antibiotics as part of a treatment regime. The concern was that the antibiotics were harmful to the animals and were contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Smithfield said in 2005 that it would administer antibiotics only to animals who were sick themselves, or who were in close proximity to sick animals.

Operations in Mexico

The earliest confirmed case of the H1N1 virus (swine flu) during the 2009 flu pandemic was in a five-year-old boy in La Gloria, Mexico, near several facilities operated by Granjas Carroll de Mexico, a Smithfield Foods subsidiary that processes 1.2 million pigs a year and employs 907 people. This, together with tension between the company and the local community over Smithfield's environmental record, prompted several newspapers to link the outbreak to Smithfield's farming practices. According to The Washington Post, over 600 other residents of La Gloria became ill from a respiratory disease in March that year (later thought to be seasonal flu). The Post writes that health officials found no link between the farms and the H1N1 outbreak. Smithfield said that it had found no clinical signs of swine flu in its pigs or employees in Mexico, and had no reason to believe that the outbreak was connected to its Mexican facilities. The company said it routinely administers flu virus vaccine to its swine herds in Mexico and conducts monthly tests to detect the virus.

Residents alleged that the company regularly violates local environmental regulations. According to the Post, local farmers had complained for years about headaches from the smell of the pig farms, and said that wild dogs had been eating discarded pig carcasses left lying in the open. Smithfield uses biodigesters to convert dead pigs into renewable energy, but residents allege that they regularly overflow. Residents also feared that the waste stored in the lagoons would leak into the groundwater.

Packaging reduction

In 2009 Armour-Eckrich replaced an oversized rectangular package for smoked sausage with crescent-style packaging. The new design reduced the amount of plastic film and corrugated cardboard the company used by more than 840,000 pounds per year. In addition, several plants are switching to or testing a new bagging system that helps reduce plastic use. The John Morrell plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, piloted the system for Smithfield in 2010, reducing the amount of plastic required by about 40,600 pounds a year. Farmland Foods reduced the amount of corrugated packaging entering waste streams by more than five million pounds per year. Smithfield Packing reduced the size of its tubs for deli meat, using 17 percent less plastic for each one. The company also cut the size of the boxes that transport chicken frankfurters to its largest customer, eliminating about 20,000 pounds of corrugated material a year.

2010 State Veterinarian Visit

The Virginia state veterinarian Richard Wilkes visited the Waverly, Virginia hog facility of Murphy-Brown, a Smithfield subsidiary, on December 22 at Smithfield's invitation. He told The Virginian-Pilot that Smithfield had been "very responsive and very responsible" and said he had not seen "any indication of abuse" of the pigs and was impressed by the animals' demeanor. His visit followed the release by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) earlier that month of an undercover video taken by one of its investigators, who worked for a month at Murphy-Brown. The video showed 1,000 sows living in gestation crates and mistreatment of animals by staff members.

A company spokesman said they had "zero tolerance for any behavior that does not conform to our established animal well-being procedures." The company asked Temple Grandin, a professor of animal husbandry, to review the footage; she recommended an inspection by animal welfare expert Jennifer Woods. Smithfield announced on December 21 that it had fired two workers and their supervisor.

Legal and labor issues

Working conditions

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a 175-page report in 2005 documenting what it said were unsafe work conditions in the U.S. meat and poultry industry. In particular, the report said, workers make thousands of repetitive motions with knives during each shift, leading to lacerations and repetitive strain injuries. According to HRW, the workers' immigrant status may be exploited to prevent them from making complaints or forming unions. The report cited working conditions in Smithfield Foods as an example. According to the report, the speed at which the pigs are killed and processed makes the job inherently dangerous for workers. A Smithfield manager testified in 1998, during an unfair labor practices trial, that at the Tar Heel plant in North Carolina it takes between five and ten minutes to slaughter and complete the process of "disassembly" of an animal, including draining, cleaning, and cleaving. One worker told HRW that the disassembly line moves so fast that there is no time to sharpen the knives, which means harder cuts have to be made, with the resultant injuries to workers. Similar criticism has been made by other groups regarding Smithfield facilities in Poland and Romania.

Union dispute

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The Smithfield Packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was the site of a long dispute between the company and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), which had tried since the early 1990s to organize the plant's roughly 5,000 hourly workers. Workers voted against the union in 1994 and 1997, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleged that unfair election conduct had occurred and ordered a new election. During the 1997 election the company is alleged to have fired workers who supported the union, stationed police at the plant gates, and threatened plant closures. In 2000, according to Human Rights Watch, Smithfield set up its own security force with "special police agency" status under North Carolina law, and in 2003 arrested workers who supported the union.

Smithfield appealed the NLRB's ruling that the 1997 election was invalid, and in 2006 the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the NLRB. Smithfield and the workers at Tar Heel called on the UFCW to hold a new election, and the company agreed to pay half the cost of an independent observer, but the union argued that Smithfield would not allow a fair election and should have recognized card-check organizing. After a year-long series of public demonstrations, several lockouts, and a shareholder meeting that 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. In October 2008, the UFCW and Smithfield reached an agreement, under which the union agreed to suspend its boycott campaign in return for the company dropping its RICO lawsuit and allowing another election. In December 2008, workers voted 2,041 to 1,879 in favor of joining the UFCW, bringing the 15-year fight to an end.

Justice Department penalty

In January 2009 Smithfield was assessed a $900,000 penalty by the U.S. Justice Department to settle charges that the company engaged in illegal merger activity during its takeover of Premium Standard Farms LLC in 2006.

Philanthropy

The Smithfield-Luter Foundation, established in 2002, is a non-profit organization that acts as the philanthropic wing of Smithfield Foods, dedicated primarily to providing scholarship opportunities to the children and grandchildren of Smithfield employees. It has given $5 million to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, to establish the Luter School of Business, and $5 million to the University of Virginia Cancer Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Foundation also provides support for its "learners to leaders" programs, begun in 2006, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Denison, Iowa; and Norfolk, Virginia.

A Smithfield subsidiary, Eckrich, sponsored Bobby Hamilton, Jr.'s #25 Team Rensi Motorsports Ford during the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, and in 2012 Smithfield reached a three-year deal with Richard Petty Motorsports to sponsor the #43 Ford driven by Aric Almirola.

Governance

Board of directors

• Joseph W. Luter, III, director since 1975
• C. Larry Pope, director since 2006
• Hon. Carol T. Crawford, director since 2000
• Richard T. Crowder, director since 2011
• Margaret G. Lewis, director since 2011
• Wendell H. Murphy, director since 2000
• David C. Nelson, director since 2008
• Frank S. Royal, M.D., director since 2002
• John T. Schwieters, director since 2001
• Hon. Paul S. Trible, Jr., director since 2007

Corporate officers

• C. Larry Pope, President and Chief Executive Officer
• George H. Richter, President and Chief Operating Officer, Pork Group
• Joseph W. Luter, IV, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Pork Group
• Robert W. Manly, IV, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Dhamu Thamodaran, Executive Vice President and Chief Commodity Hedging Officer
• Dennis H. Treacy Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer

See also

• Pig Business (2009)

Notes

1. ^ Turner 2005, pp. 323–324.
2. "Our company" and "Investors", Smithfield Foods.
3. Deptolla (Smithfield Foods) 2011, p. 6.
4. ^ Barboza, April 7, 2000, p. 1.
5. ^ Tietz, December 14, 2006, p. 1.
6. Seward 2009, p. 650. The other companies were American Foods Group, Cargill Meat Solutions and XL Beef.
   • For the sale of Smithfield Beef Group, the fifth-largest beef producer in the United States, to JBS S.A., see Walzer, October 24, 2008.
7. ^ "1965–1936"; "2000–1966"; "Present–2010"; "Corporate Officers", Smithfield Foods, undated.
   • For Murphy Family Farms and Tyson, see The New York Times, September 30, 1999.
8. Calamuci 2008, p. 73.
9. ^ Barboza, April 7, 2000, p. 2.
10. Hobbs and Young 2001, p. 17.
11. Felberbaum, September 10, 2010.
    • Associated Press, December 7, 2010.
12. Calamuci 2008, p. 68.
13. "A Look Back at the Smithfield Foods History"; "Our company", and "Investors", Smithfield Foods, undated.
14. "The Brands of Smithfield Foods, Inc. and Our Independent Operating Companies", Smithfield Foods, undated.
15. Walzer, July 10, 2012.
16. ^ Tietz, December 14, 2006, p. 2.
17. Hobbs and Young 2001, p. 6; for Smithfield, pp. 16, 17.
18. Horowitz 2005, p. 134.
19. That the intensive growing facilities, or "mega factories," are a key component of vertical integration, see Dunn 2005, p. 178.
20. ^ Fainaru, May 10, 2009, p. 2.
21. "Rolling Stone's 'Bosshog' Article: Fiction vs. Fact", Smithfield Foods, undated.
22. Environmental Protection Agency, August 8, 1997.
23. Rollin 1995, p. 76.
24. Kaufmanm January 26, 2007.
    • Niman and Hahn Niman, August 26, 2009.
    • "In response to animal handling concerns raised by HSUS", Smithfield Foods, undated.
25. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/pork-industry-gives-sows-room-to-move/2012/05/25/gJQAISlxyU_story.html Carmen, May 29, 2012.
26. Tietz, December 14, 2006, p. 4
27. ^ For the 1997 fine, see Environmental Protection Agency, August 8, 1997.
    • For Hurricane Floyd, see lawyersandsettlements.com, March 13, 2007, attributed to ABC News.
    • Also see Deptolla (Smithfield Foods) 2011, p. 7.
28. ^ Deptolla (Smithfield Foods) 2011, p. 9.
29. Reliable Plant, undated.
30. Senate Committee on Government Affairs, March 2, 2002.
    • Waterkeeper Alliance, January 20, 2006.
31. ^ Environmental Leader, July 23, 2010.
32. Smithfield Foods, July 22, 2010.
33. Deptolla (Smithfield Foods) 2011, p. 8.
34. Riha, April 8, 2005.
35. ^ Fainaru, May 10, 2009.
    • Also see The New York Times, April 28, 2009, and Foley, April 29, 2009.
36. Smithfield Foods, 2009.
37. Tuckman, April 29, 2009.
    • Also see Lucas, April 28, 2009.
38. Walzer, January 10, 2011.
39. Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 16, 2010.
40. ^ Associated Press, December 15, 2010.
    • Humane Society of the United States, December 15, 2010 (video).
41. Associated Press, December 21, 2010; Smith, December 22, 2010.
    • Also see "In response to animal handling concerns raised by HSUS", Smithfield Foods, undated; "Letter from Temple Grandin" (Smithfield Foods), December 13, 2010; and "Grandin/Woods Report (Smithfield Foods)", December 20, 2010.
42. Green, December 21, 2010.
43. ^ Human Rights Watch, January 25, 2005; "Blood, Sweat and Fear (Human Rights Watch)", January 25, 2005.
    • Also see Deptolla (Smithfield Foods) 2011, p. 8.
44. "Blood, Sweat and Fear", p. 4.
    • For a Smithfield manager's description of the process, see "Appendix A: The Production Process in Meat and Poultry Plants", "Blood, Sweat and Fear".
45. Deptolla (Smithfield Foods) 2011, p. 8.
46. ^ Maher, December 10, 2007.
47. Smithfield Packing Company, June 15, 2006.
48. Associated Press, July 13, 2007.
49. Greenhouse, December 13, 2008.
50. Dow Jones Newswires, January 21, 2010.
51. Luter School of Business, Christopher Newport University.
    • For the cancer donation, see Smithfield News, Spring 2006.
52. Smith (Smithfield Foods), undated.
53. MSN Fox Sports, January 12, 2012.
54. ^ "Leadership at Smithfield Foods", Smithfield Foods.

References

Books and papers

Calamuci, Daniel. "Return to the Jungle: The Rise and Fall of Meatpacking Work", New Labor Forum, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 2008), pp. 66-77.

Deptolla, Ralph (Smithfield Foods). "Smithfield's journey to sustainability: A work in progress", Global Business and Organizational Excellence, Volume 30, Issue 6, September/October 2011.

Hobbs, Jill E. and Young, Linda M. "Vertical Linkages in Agri-Food Supply Chains in Canada and the United States", Research and Analysis Directorate, Strategic Policy Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, June 2001.

Horowitz, Roger. Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation. John Hopkins University Press, 2005.

Dunn, Elizabeth C. "Standards and Person-Making in East Central Europe," in Aihwa Ong and Stephen J. Collier. Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Rollin, Bernard E. Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues. Iowa State University Press, 1995.

Seward, Robert A. "Regulations on Meat Hygiene in the USA," in Fidel Toldrá (ed.). Safety of Meat and Processed Meat. Springer, 2009.

Turner, Tyya N. Vault Guide to the Top Consumer Products Employers. Vault Inc., 2005.

News items

Associated Press. "Sale of Butterball complete", December 7, 2010.

Associated Press. "Humane Society Claims Pigs Abused at Va. Farm", December 15, 2010.

Associated Press. "Smithfield fires 3 workers for mistreating pigs", December 21, 2010.

Baker, Mike. "Smithfield workers push for vote", Associated Press, July 14, 2007.

Barboza, David. "Goliath of the Hog World; Fast Rise of Smithfield Foods Makes Regulators Wary", The New York Times, April 7, 2000.

Carmen, Tim. "Pork industry gives sows room to move", The Washington Post, May 29, 2012.

Dow Jones Newswires. "Smithfield Foods Settles Charges Of Pre-Merger Coordination", January 21, 2010.

Environmental Leader. "Smithfield Foods CSR Report: Commits to Reduce Energy and Water Use, Solid Waste 10% by 2016", July 23, 2010.

Fainaru, Steve. "Mexicans Blame Industrial Hog Farms", The Washington Post, May 10, 2009.

Felberbaum, Michael. "Smithfield to sell its stake in Butterball", Associated Press, September 10, 2010.

Foley, Stephen. "For La Gloria, the stench of blame is from pig factories", The Independent, April 29, 2009.

Green, Kristen. "Smithfield Foods fires three workers after pig farm probe", Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 21, 2010.

Greenhouse, Steven. "After 15 Years, North Carolina Plant Unionizes", The New York Times, December 13, 2008.

Kaufman, Marc. "Largest Pork Processor to Phase Out Crates", The Washington Post, January 26, 2007.

Lacey, Marc. "From Édgar, 5, Coughs Heard Round the World", The New York Times, April 28, 2009.

Lucas, Caroline. "Swine flu: is intensive pig farming to blame?", The Guardian, April 28, 2009.

Maher, Kris. "Firms Use RICO to Fight Union Tactics," Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2007.

MSN Fox Sports. "Nascar: Petty names new sponsor for 2012", January 12, 2012.

Niman, Bill and Hahn Niman, Nicollete. "Looking Out For All Animals", The Atlantic, August 26, 2009.

Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Humane Society says Smithfield mistreated pigs", December 16, 2010.

Smith, Joe. "Smithfield fires three for welfare violations", Feedstuffs, December 22, 2010.

Tietz, Jeff. "Boss Hog", Rolling Stone, December 14, 2006.

The New York Times. "Smithfield in stock deal for Tyson's hog operations", September 30, 1999.

Tuckman, Jo. "Attention turns to La Gloria in search to determine swine flu source", The Guardian, April 29, 2009.

Walzer, Philip. "Smithfield Foods cashes out of beef industry to ride out slump", The Virginian-Pilot, October 24, 2008.

Walzer, Philip. "Pork producer Smithfield Foods to open restaurant", The Virginian-Pilot, July 10, 2012.

Walzer, Philip. "State veterinarian approves Smithfield's pig handling", The Virginian-Pilot, January 10, 2011.

Websites

Christopher Newport University. Luter School of Business, undated.

Humane Society of the United States. "HSUS Praises Smithfield Move to End Confinement of Pigs in Gestation Crate", January 25, 2007.

Humane Society of the United States. "HSUS Exposes Inhumane Treatment of Pigs at Smithfield", and "Undercover at Smithfield Foods" (video), December 15, 2010.

Human Rights Watch. "Abuses Against Workers Taint U.S. Meat and Poultry", and "Blood, Sweat and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants", January 25, 2005.

North Carolina State University. "The Agreement", College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Reliable Plant. "Smithfield Foods facilities obtain ISO 14001 certification", undated.

Senate Committee on Government Affairs. "Testimony of Richard J. Dove, Waterkeeper Alliance", March 13, 2002.

Smithfield Foods. "A Look Back at the Smithfield Foods History".

Smithfield Foods. "History: 1965–1936"; "2000–1966"; "Present–2010", undated.

Smithfield Foods. "Corporate Officers" undated.

Smithfield Foods. "The Brands of Smithfield Foods, Inc. and Our Independent Operating Companies", undated.

Smithfield Foods. "Rolling Stone's 'Bosshog' Article: Fiction vs. Fact", undated.

Smithfield Foods. "Smithfield Foods Says It Found No Evidence of Swine Influenza at Its Mexican Joint Ventures", 2009.

Smithfield Foods. "Smithfield Foods Releases Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report", July 22, 2010.

Smithfield Foods. "In response to animal handling concerns raised by HSUS", undated.

Smithfield Foods. "Statement on NLRB decision", Smithfield Packing Co, June 15, 2006.

Smithfield Foods. "Letter from Temple Grandin", December 13, 2010.

Smithfield Foods. "Grandin/Woods Report", December 20, 2010.

Smithfield Foods. "Effort shapes learners, leaders", Feedstuffs Foodlink, Smithfield-Luter Foundation.

Smith, Ron (Smithfield Foods). "Effort shapes learners, leaders", Feedstuffs Foodlink, Smithfield-Luter Foundation, undated.

Waterkeeper Alliance. "Waterkeeper Alliance and Smithfield Foods Reach Agreement on Environmental Pact", January 20, 2006.

United States Department of Justice. "Smithfield Foods fined $12.6 million. Largest Clean Water Act fine ever", August 8, 1997.

Further reading

External links

Smithfield Foods

The Smithfield-Luter Foundation charitable giving foundation

Smithfield's Granjas Carroll

Humane Society of the United States. "Undercover at Smithfield Foods" (video), December 15, 2010.

Smithfield Foods. "Sow Farm: Taking the Mystery Out of Pork Production at Smithfield Foods" (video), February 24, 2011.

Books and papers

Coppin, Dawn. "Foucauldian Hog Futures: The Birth of Mega-Hog Farms", The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 597-616.

Eisnitz, Gail A. Slaughterhouse. Prometheus Books, 2006, first published 1997.

Evans-Hylton, Patrick. Smithfield: Ham Capital of the World. Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Harvard Law Review. "Challenging Concentration of Control in the American Meat Industry", Vol. 117, No. 8 (June 2004), pp. 2643-2664.

Hahn Niman, Nicolette. Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms. HarperCollins, 2010.

Hayenga, Marvin L. "Cost Structures of Pork Slaughter and Processing Firms: Behavioral and Performance Implications", Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Autumn – Winter, 1998), pp. 574-583.

Ladd, Anthony E. and Edward, Bob. "Corporate Swine and Capitalist Pigs: A Decade of Environmental Injustice and Protest in North Carolina", Social Justice, Vol. 29, No. 3 (89), pp. 26-46.

Reimer, Jeffrey J. "Vertical Integration in the Pork Industry", American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 88, No. 1 (February 2006), pp. 234-248.

Wing, Steve et al. "Air Pollution and Odor in Communities near Industrial Swine Operations", Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 116, No. 10 (Oct., 2008), pp. 1362-1368.

Wise, Steven. An American Trilogy. Da Capo Press, 2009.

News items

Barnett, Anthony and Khan, Urmee. "'Shocking' farms raise pigs for UK", The Guardian, April 2, 2006.

Herbert, Bob. "Where the Hogs Come First", The New York Times, June 15, 2006.

Herbert, Bob. "On the Killing Floor", The New York Times, June 19, 2006.

LeDuff, Charlie. "At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die", The New York Times, June 16, 2000.

Stith, Pat; Warrick, Joby; and Sill, Melanie. "Boss Hog: The power of pork", The News & Observer (Raleigh), February 19, 1995 (this and the following series of articles on the pig industry in North Carolina won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1996).

Stith, Pat and Warrick, Joby. "New studies show that lagoons are leaking", The News & Observer, February 19, 1995.

Stith, Pat and Warrick, Joby. "Corporate takeover", The News & Observer, February 21, 1995.

Stith, Pat and Warrick, Joby. "Murphy's Law", The News & Observer, February 22, 1995.

"Hog-Tied on ethics", The News & Observer, editorial, February 23, 1995.

Stith, Pat and Warrick, Joby. "Money Talks", The News & Observer, February 24, 1995.

"Putting the hush on hogs", The News & Observer, editorial, February 24, 1995.

Stith, Pat and Warrick, Joby. "Pork Barrels", The News & Observer, February 26, 1995.

"When hogs come first", The News & Observer, editorial, February 28, 1995.

The New York Times. "Smithfield Foods Inc.".

Tuckman, Jo. "La Gloria, swine flu's ground zero, is left with legacy of anger", The Guardian, April 23, 2010.

v t e Pigs
Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Class Mammalia Order Artiodactyla Suborder Suina Family Suidae Subfamily Suinae Genus Sus Species Sus domesticus
Domestic	Breeding Shows Farming Intensive farming Sty Pannage Toilet Hog oiler Gestation crate Cross-fostering Swineherd Feedback As food Bacon Bondiola Capocollo Ham Lard Pork Chitterlings Scalder Slaughter Suckling Blood Religious restrictions Scottish pork taboo Cuts Back bacon Boston butt Fatback Ham hock Pig's trotters Pork belly Pork chop Pork jowl Loin Tenderloin Ribs Spare ribs Pork rind Pork steak Ear Tail Other uses Bladder Racing War Wrestling Truffling
Wild and feral	Wild boar Heraldry Hunting Razorback Boar–pig hybrid
In culture	Freddy the Pig Flitch of bacon custom Floyd of Rosedale Miss Piggy "Pigs in Space" Porky Pig Piglet "The Three Little Pigs" Animal Farm Old Major Napoleon Snowball Squealer Babe Babe: Pig in the City Bad Piggies Blandings Castle Empress of Blandings My Brother the Pig Charlotte's Web The Sheep-Pig Peppa Pig Super Pig Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig Fair, then Partly Piggy Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks Kazoops! Olivia (character) TV series Pink Floyd pigs Pinky and Perky Preston Pig Rasher Porco Rosso Spider-Ham Spider pig The Tale of Little Pig Robinson The Tale of Pigling Bland "This Little Piggy" Toot & Puddle Huxley Pig Wibbly Pig Zhu Bajie Hamilton Hocks Pig City
Other	List of individual pigs List of fictional pigs Piganino Pigasus (politics)
Category: Pigs

• Companies based in Virginia
• Companies established in 1936
• Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
• Food production companies of the United States
• Industrial agriculture
• Meatpacking
• Meat processing in the United States
• Pig farming
• Smithfield Foods brands