Factory farms owned by Smithfield Foods in Missouri caused 748 reported spills, spewing more than 7.3 million gallons of factory farm waste. After reviewing three decades of public records, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP) compiled its findings in The Rap Sheet on Smithfield’s Industrial Hog Facilities in Missouri, revealing a long history of spills and regulatory violations at Smithfield’s concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and an ongoing failure by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to address the problem.
Key findings from the Rap Sheet: - Total reported spills: 748
- Volume of reported spills: 7.3M gallons
- Reported spills of unknown volume: 156
- Average volume of reported spills: 12,200 gallons
- Average number of spills per year: 25
- Average volume of spills per year (30-year average): 240,000 gallons
- Reported spills to which DNR did not respond onsite: 353 (47% of total spills)
- Volume of spills to which DNR did not respond onsite: 3.4M gallons (plus 27 spills of
- unknown volume)
Public records clearly show that Smithfield’s Missouri CAFOs have been major polluters ever since they were built!
It’s difficult to reconcile the staggering volume and frequency of spills with Smithfileld’s purported commitment to responsible food production. That’s why I’m writing to you today to ask you to support SRAP with a generous contribution of $100, $250, or even $500.
Your support is vital to ensuring we can hold major polluters like Smithfield accountable.
During a recent interview about a 500,000-gallon spill that occurred last year, Smithfield VP of Corporate Affairs Jim Monroe claimed it was “an extremely rare incident,” contending that “Smithfield takes pride in its longstanding compliance record in the state of Missouri.”
SRAP’s Rap Sheet report suggests otherwise. During Smithfield’s ownership, its Missouri CAFOs caused more than two reported spills per month, polluting land and waterways with more than 300,000 gallons of waste annually for the past 15 years.
The Rap Sheet also highlights DNR’s ineffective regulatory response to Smithfield’s chronically polluting facilities. The agency failed to respond onsite to nearly 70 percent of reported spills during the last 15 years, and issued just 4 Notices of Violation, despite 3.6 million gallons of waste spilled during that time. These spills are an entirely predictable result of Smithfield’s inability to safely manage waste at these CAFOs. There’s no reason for this type of pollution to go on for 30 years.
Because of your solidarity with SRAP, we can continue to expose these corporate CAFOs who put corporate profits above a food system that values people, animals, and the environment.
We couldn’t do this work without the support of generous donors, like you.
Now is the time to take action and take a stand against industrial agriculture. Please make a generous gift today to support SRAP’s in-depth work holding companies like Smithfield accountable. You can find the Rap Sheet, photo gallery, and interactive spill map at SRAProject.org/SmithfieldMORapSheet.
|
