In a modern-day version of David and Goliath, Polish farmers recently
blocked efforts by Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer, to
modernize their farms using production methods that can hurt animals,
small farmers, and the environment.
Last year, a group consisting of Polish farmers, environmentalists,
educators, and presidential candidate Andrzej Lepper witnessed the
aftermath of Smithfield’s massive U.S. pork facilities on rural
communities during a tour organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Animal
Welfare Institute (AWI). After speaking with local residents, seeing the
habitat degradation first-hand, and briefly entering one hog facility,
the Polish contingency refused to allow Smithfield to jumpstart their
agricultural economy through vertical integration, an agribusiness
system that centralizes production from birth to slaughter and
processing under tight and often inhumane standards.
“These are concentration camps for hogs,” stated Lepper, the
president of Samoobrona Self-Defence, the Polish Farmer’s Union, after
traveling among sites in North Carolina to Missouri and Iowa. “We had
concentration camps in Poland before. We will not allow them again.”
The outspoken Populist kicked off an anti-Smithfield campaign in
Poland by sending about 5,000 copies of the videotaped tour to every
town, city, and county government along with a letter asking them to
deny building permits to Animex, Poland’s largest meatpacking plant and
a company in which Smithfield’s has held a majority stake since 1999.
Poland’s agriculture minister and the head of the state Agricultural
Property Agency surprised everyone by joining the campaign, along with
many farmers whose rebellious natures helped them keep 80 percent of
their farms in private hands while under communist rule. Their
relentless drive to control their livelihoods helped them thwart a
pork-industry powerhouse. After less than a year of campaigning,
Smithfield withdrew their plan earlier this summer to make Animex the
largest hog producer in Europe -- with a projected revenue of about $1
billion-- by replacing three of its plants with four massive hog factory
complexes. Yet despite the victory, activists remain wary. “He
[Smithfield CEO Joe Luter] plays to win,” said Tom Garrett, AWI’s rural
advisor who led the campaign. “So we’re waiting for the other shoe to
drop to see what concession he exacted in return for suspending
[conversion] of the Animex plants.”
Now the humane farming advocates are battling to convert the 20
percent of state-run factory farms to less cruel production systems. The
State Farm Property Agency has agreed to pay for circulating AWI’s
humane farming brochures among existing state farms and farmers leasing
land from the state. The agency would connect interested producers with
AWI, which would draw up individualized conversion methods, with the
state covering farmers’ costs. Although no plans have been implemented
yet, organizers anticipate that the Polish farmers may opt for more
humane farming solutions now that they have rejected intensive
confinement systems.
“The [agribusiness] changes happened in the United States without the
farmers really doing anything to prevent it, and the Polish farmers are
trying to keep Animex out and the state farms out,” said Gail Eisnitz,
chief investigator for the Humane Farming Association, who contributed
to organizing efforts during a trip to Poland. “The farmers were really
outraged and anxious to do anything to prevent this from happening.”
“Reprinted with permission from The Animals’ Agenda, P.O. Box 25881,
Baltimore, MD 21224; (410) 675-4566; www.animalsagenda.org.”
Email: office@animalsagenda.org.
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