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Coalition of farmers, consumers, urges rejection of Smithfield deal
Story Date: 7/23/2013
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Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 7/22/13
A coalition of farm, rural and consumer organizations has delivered a letter to members of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States urging them to recommend that the Obama administration reject the proposed Shuanghui International Holdings, Ltd. acquisition of Smithfield Foods. Among concerns highlighted in the letter are food security, the impact on consumer food prices, food safety and the risk of Chinese espionage.
“This proposed acquisition is a prime example of how expanded corporate consolidation in agriculture has gone too far, resulting in lack of markets for independent producers, and damaging effects on our rural economies and country” Tim Gibbons, of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, said in a news release. “The Smithfield purchase turns over American farms to a consolidated, globalized meatpacking industry that leaves rural communities to clean up the waste while China gets the meat.”
Shuanghui’s purchase of Smithfield would transfer ownership of a company that controls more than a quarter of American pork production and buys or contracts a quarter of U.S. hogs.
“Smithfield has shifted half of its pork production and processing to ractopomine-free pork, which many observers believe was designed to court Chinese buyers since China will not import pork raised with ractopomine. If Shuanghui diverts fully half of Smithfield’s production to export to the Chinese market, the exports from U.S. plants would increase by about 2 billion pounds,” according to the letter.
“U.S. farmers already sell livestock on a concentrated market where they often cannot get fair contract terms or receive fair prices and this cross-border takeover will worsen the conditions farmers face,” said Ben Burkett, Mississippi farmer and President of the National Family Farm Coalition.
Among food safety concerns is the anticipation that Shuanghui eventually may seek to export pork products to the United States, “which would expose U.S. consumers to the host of food safety scandals that plague the Chinese food system,” according to the coalition.
“As recently as 2011, Shuanghui managers were sentenced to prison for allowing illegal veterinary drugs into the pork supply in China and we don’t want to expose American consumers to such indifferent food safety standards,” said Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter. “If Shuanghui eventually exported bacon, sausage or ham to the United States under the well-known Smithfield brands like Armour or Gwaltney, American consumers would not even know, because processed pork is exempt from country of origin labeling.”
The coalition’s letter was signed by Campaign for Contract Agriculture Reform, Coalition for a Prosperous America, Center for Rural Affairs, Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, Food & Water Watch, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Land Stewardship Project, Missouri’s Best Beef Co-Operative, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, National Family Farm Coalition, National Farmers Union, Nebraska Farmers Union, Organization for Competitive Markets, Rural Advancement Foundation International—USA, R-CALF USA and Western Organization of Resource Councils.
Last week, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) called for a comprehensive review of the pending purchase as well. “Smithfield’s potential acquisition by a Chinese company raises important questions about intellectual property rights, food safety and public health, among other issues. Public officials have a responsibility to protect American consumers and businesses,” she said.
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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