World's Largest Pork Producer has Record Profits but Fails to Follow Through on Promise

[Ed. Note: All actions that move animal protection forward need to be taken; however, since there is no such thing as "humane farming," it is imperative that we educate, inspire and do EVERYTHING we can think of to get people to go vegan. Not eating "food animals" is the best, most effective way to end cruelties inflicted on them. See our image gallery - The Pig - to see some of the atrocities committed so people can eat ham, pork chops, pork shoulder, bacon...Why would a business like Smithfield do ANYTHING to help the animals from which they profit? Go vegan and or you continue to support Smithfield-like industries. Watch an animation representation of pigs who die in the U.S. to be food: 13,200 Pigs Are Slaughtered Per Hour.]

By Jonathan Reynolds on This Dish Is Veg
June 2011

In 2007, Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, promised to phase out gestation crates by 2017, but changed their minds in 2009 after referencing an economic downturn.

"It's an idiotic double standard: you can't kick a dog, but you can lock a pig up in a small crate and take her piglets away before she can nurse them properly, as any mother is programmed to do. This is man's insane inhumanity at its worst."
- Rick Dove

In 2007, Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, promised to phase out gestation crates by 2017, but changed their minds in 2009 after referencing an economic downturn. Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society contacted Smithfield CEO C. Larry Pope to express his disappointment in the decision, but Pope reassured Pacelle that "when we see a recovery, I will indeed set a timeline to complete this [phase-out] process."

On December 15, 2010, the Humane Society released the results of a one-month undercover inquiry into Smithfield Foods. If you missed our article on this story, you can read it here.

This is not an image from Smithfield...or is it?
Image from The Animals Voice

To summarize, the investigation found live pigs and piglets thrown into carts or dumpsters, pigs slipping through grated floor panels into piles of manure pits, no veterinary care to help pigs with conditions such as abscesses, and pigs crammed inside the aforementioned gestation crates.

In mid-June 2011, The Virginian-Pilot (Smithfield's hometown newspaper) ran an article about Smithfield having "record profits," more than any year prior.

The Humane Society has since posted a simple form on their website where you can easily send a message to Smithfield CEO Larry Pope asking him to phase out usage of "gestation creates."

For more information on pig farming, I recommend checking out the 2009 film Pig Business described on IMDB.com as an "investigative documentary into the corporate takeover of pig farming and the devastating impacts this is having on our environment, local communities, small farmers, human health and animal welfare."