HOGGING THE PROFITS - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 113

tration's investigation found that the young man had been improperly trained and supervised, and that the
tank was not properly labeled as a dangerous confined space. The agency fined Smithfield just $4,323. 74
The safety issues continued after this incident. In March 2005 the federal Occupational Safety and
Health Administration conducted a walk-through and safety inspection of the plant and found more than
fifty violations of safety and health laws, with most of them categorized as “serious.” These included a
lack of safety training, unguarded blades, missing guardrails, blocked exits, illegible signage, and improper
safety procedures. 75
And now, although U.S. activists continue to fight hog factories, another battle with Smithfield has
emerged on the global stage. Having created so much anger from environmentalists, farmers, and con-
sumers at home, Smithfield began looking overseas to increase profits. The company began its Eastern
European venture by lobbying and courting public officials in Poland and Romania, making friends in high
places, and “fending off” local opposition groups to create a conglomerate of feed mills, slaughterhouses,
and climate-controlled barns housing thousands of hogs. 76
In 1999, Smithfield bought out Poland's leading processing company, Animex, and began exploiting the
country's lax environmental regulations and cheap labor. The takeover was supported by a $100 million
loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and its partners. 77 Not too bad for
Smithfield, considering it acquired Animex for just $55 million when then CEO Joseph Luter valued the
company at $500 million. “Just ten cents on the dollar,” he boasted. 78
Smithfield's philosophy was clear. The current CEO, C. Larry Pope, says of their operations in Eastern
Europe: “Politically, it is acceptable, and we've got people in Western Europe who make twenty euro an
hour when you've got people in Eastern Europe who make one or two euro an hour. You've got land in
Western Europe, very hot place. Land in Eastern Europe, they will virtually give you. Plants in Western
Europe are very expensive. Plants in Eastern Europe, they will virtually give to you for small dollars.” 79
By 2009 Smithfield had five hundred farmers raising hogs for the Polish plant and had become the
largest pork producer in Romania, with forty farms and cropland covering fifty thousand acres. The com-
pany's profits have been enhanced by European agricultural subsidies at the same time that it has overpro-
duced hogs, driving small farmers out of business. It has also created environmental disasters from seeping
hog waste, water pollution, and odor—the same problems that plague Smithfield's operations in the United
States. 80
Smithfield's assault on Poland and Romania has done more than just cause environmental and human
health problems. Anna Witowska-Ritter, who has been organizing against Smithfield in Eastern Europe
for Food & Water Watch, knows firsthand the devastation. Witowska, who received a PhD in sociology
from Jagiellonian University in Krakow in 2010, has been battling the onslaught of Smithfield since 2004.
She spent several years in the United States working in the nonprofit sector but eventually moved back to
Poland with her American husband. Now a mother of two young girls, she still finds the time to educate
citizens, the media, and policy makers about Smithfield's deplorable practices.
Witowska-Ritter says, “Smithfield took advantage of the desperation related to unemployment in Po-
land and Romania. I have seen factory farms in both countries. Some of them use the cooperative facilities
left over from the Communist era.” She goes on: “They represent the victory of corporate capitalism over
communism, but they still make quite a pitiful sight. Smithfield was successful in silencing people. They
give money to schools and other community activities as a way to shut people up.”
Citizens of Romania were shocked by Smithfield's methods. In one 2007 incident, in the town of Cenei,
hundreds of carcasses of hogs killed by a heat wave at a Smithfield operation were left lying around for
about ten days. “We couldn't breathe anymore,” said an adviser at Cenei's town hall. “I live a kilometer