| 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 a multinational corporation significant
for being the world’s largest pork processor, hog producer and turkey
processor. It processes 27 million hogs and raises 14 million annually. In 2006 it produced a total of 5.9 billion pounds of pork
and 1.4 billion pounds of fresh beef.[1] Smithfield brands
include Smithfield, Butterball, John Morrell, Farmland Foods, Gwaltney, Patrick Cudahy, Krakus, Cook's Ham, and Stefano’s. Smithfield has operations in 26 states and 9 countries.
Smithfield started as what is now the Smithfield Packing Company, its
largest subsidiary, and has grown through the acquisitions of, among others, Farmland
Foods and Eckrich. In 2007, Smithfield completed an acquisition of Missouri and North
Carolina-based Premium Standard Farms.[2]
External Recognition
Fortune Magazine has named Smithfield Foods to its annual list of America's Most
Admired Companies four years in a row.[3]
London-based FTSE Group recently added Smithfield to its prestigious FTSE4Good Global Index Series of socially responsible companies.
The National Provisioner magazine named Smithfield its 2006 "Meat Processor of the
Year."[4]
Paula Deen
Since September 2006, Smithfield has teamed with celebrity cook Paula Deen in a partnership that includes community outreach
efforts, personal appearances, Web-based recipe and meal-preparation tips, and new products. Deen has two shows on the Food
Network and publishes the Cooking with Paula Deen magazine.
In July 2007, Smithfield launched a national Cable TV ad campaign featuring Deen. The 30-second spots feature Deen telling
consumers about Smithfield products and recipes available at Smithfield.com.[5]
Environmental Record
In 1997, Smithfield was fined $12.6 million for violation of the federal Clean Water Act.[6] "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." [2]
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 lagoons. Many of
the hog farms that contracted with Smithfield were accused of polluting the state's rivers.[7]
Since that time, Smithfield Foods has taken great strides to improve its image and has won praise from numerous external
sources.
In the wake of Hurricane Floyd, Smithfield entered a voluntary agreement 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 agreement, Smithfield committed $15 million to fund research at North Carolina State University.[8] In addition, the company makes an annual contribution of $2 million to fund
environmental enhancement grants in the state.
In 2005, Smithfield announced that all Environmental Management Systems in its U.S.-based hog production, and all its U.S.
pork and beef processing facilities (except for recent acquisitions), had been environmentally certified by the International Standards Organization, the gold standard for environmental
stewardship. .[9] Smithfield was awarded for these efforts
with eight Environmental Excellence Program designations by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The company was
also commended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the same organization that had fined the company less than 10 years
before. [10]
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.[11][12]
Smithfield Foods has also been awarded five Virginia Governor's Environmental Excellence awards, the Wisonsin Governor's Award
for Excellence in Environmental Performance and 48 Environmental MAPS Awards from the American Meat Institute. In 2006,
London-based FTSE Group added Smithfield to its prestigious FTSE4Good Global Index Series of socially responsible
companies.[13]
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, 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.[14] 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.[15]
Sow Crates
In January 2007, Smithfield announced that it is beginning the process of phasing out individual gestation stalls at all of
its company-owned sow farms and replacing them with pens—or group housing—over the next 10 years. Many animal rights groups have
said that confinement of sows in gestation crates is unnecessarily cruel.
The Humane Society of the United States called the announcement "perhaps the most monumental advance for animal welfare in
history of modern American agribusiness."[16]
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 and $5 million to the University of Virginia Cancer
Center.
External links
References
- ^ Business Snapshot. Smithfield (2006).
- ^ Smithfield Foods
Completes Acquisition of Premium Standard Farms, Inc.. Smithfield (May 7, 2007).
- ^ Most Admired Companies in America 2006. Fortune Magazine (2006).
- ^ Smithfield 2006 Meat Processor of the Year. National Provisioner (2006).
- ^ Paula Deen commercials. Smithfield.
- ^ 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.
- ^ EPA Commendation.
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).
- ^ 2005 Smithfield Foods Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Smithfield Foods.
- ^ Statement on NLRB decision. Smithfield Packing Co. (June 15, 2006).
- ^ Smithfield: Workers Want Union Vote. Associated Press (July 13, 2007).
- ^ HSUS
Praises Smithfield Move to End Confinement of Pigs in Gestation Crates. The Humane Society of the United States (January 25,
2007).
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