You will all be happy to know that Smithfield Foods, the largest producer and processor of hogs in the United States and in the world, was recently honored with an Environmental Recognition Award from the American Meat Institute (AMI).  A press release from Forbes explains that this award celebrates “companies that assess their own environmental challenges and develop unique solutions that encourage continuous improvement.”

So what are Smithfield facilities doing to prove their dedication to environmental stewardship?  According to Smithfield’s website, the corporation has been implementing programs to improve conservation, reduce emissions, and investigate alternative energy sources.  That all sounds great, but curiosity drove me to review Food & Water Watch’s 2008 report, The Trouble With Smithfield: A Corporate Profile, for more specifics.

In the report, I learned that the corporation has a multitude of environmental achievements, just not all positive.  Perhaps the company’s factory farms are being honored for their practice of storing hog waste in huge lagoons, which only overflow or leak occasionally, smothering nearby rivers and streams and killing millions of fish.  Or maybe it is the failure of slaughterhouses to properly treat effluent, allowing the entire watershed to benefit from fecal coliforms and phosphorus, among other contaminants.  A practice that I found particularly noteworthy is their efforts to share hogs’ waste and associated fumes with neighboring communities –the waste can even be potent enough to be enjoyed by pilots flying at an elevation of up to 3,000 feet!

Now you may be wondering, as am I, how Smithfield facilities earned this award.  I suppose it is possible that they have drastically changed their ways since our report…  Or, the standards being used to give the award aren’t exactly the same as my standards for good environmental performance.   

- Darcy White
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