Smithfield Foods, A Personal Education

I’ve long heard in the non-conventional food media about Smithfield Foods. Surely, I’ve eaten a lot of their food products and, if you eat pork, chances are pretty high that you have too. So I wanted to learn more about Smithfield and do some of my own research. Here’s what I learned.

Who is Smithfield Foods?

Smithfield Foods began as a pork processing operation called The Smithfield Packing Company, founded in 1936 by Joseph W. Luter and his son, Joseph W. Luter, Jr. After a long series of acquisitions beginning in the early 1980’s Smithfield grew to become the largest pork processor and hog producer in the world. At the end of 2010 Smithfield sold its turkey operations and a 49% interest in Butterball. Earlier in 2010 Smithfield sold its live cattle operations. Currently, nearly 100% of Smithfield’s sales are derived from the sale of pig-related products. Packaged meat is sold domestically under the Smithfield, Farmland, Healthy Ones, John Morrell, Margherita and many other brand names.

Smithfield is responsible for ~25% of total pork produciton in the U.S. Tyson is responsible for 17% of U.S. pork volume and three other companies (Swift, Cargill & Hormel) account for an additional 27%, making the top five producers responsible for 70% of U.S. pork production.

Interesting production statistics in the recent fiscal year

  • Smithfield processed 27.3 million hogs with an average yield of 230 pounds per hog 
  • This totaled 6.3 billion pounds of marketable pork product
  • Smithfield raised
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Pig Wranglin' - How Pigs Were Herded West

Scanned from Outdoor Pig Production by Keith Thornton
From the start of our whole farming adventure I’ve been keen on pigs. Pigs are the unsung hero of the farm. They eat the scraps, they eat the whey, they till the land (i.e. cause a huge mess and dig mud wallows), they have impressive intelligence, and, most importantly, they make bacon! For whatever reason, when we visit farms I always love the pigs and I’m really looking forward to having a herd.
 
So, I’ve been reading a lot about outdoor pig production. I guess I should say “a lot of what I can find”, which isn’t a whole lot to begin with. One of the most promising books I’ve found is called Outdoor Pig Production, by Keith Thornton and it just came in the mail this week. I found a copy from someone in the UK and it even has an old note and a newspaper clipping taped to the inside with a picture of a Duroc and the breed’s benefits:
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The "Ick" in Organic: Fox and Factory Farms Fight Back!

Sweetbreads recently sent me this article/video titled "The 'Ick' Factor and the Myth of 'All-Natural'". Give it a quick watch. At a minimum it's entertaining.
 
The article/video really reinforced the great responsibility that we are assuming by committing to produce food. It reminded me how important it is for new farmers to make sure that we produce at the highest standards of quality and cleanliness. Especially for those of us that are (or will be) in the business of producing alternative food products. There’s already the hurdle of trying to sell something that’s not mainstream, so why add any more fuel to fire? 
 
First, a few things that I appreciate about the video.
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