Smithfield Foods, a Fortune 500 company, was founded and established in Smithfield, Virginia is 1936, it is the largest pork processor and hog producer. However, Smithfield isn’t known for the location of its headquarters but rather one of the company’s largest branches in North Carolina. Tar Heel, NC houses the largest slaughterhouse owned by the Chairman, Joseph W. Luter, III. Smithfield raises 14 million and kills 27 million hogs annually. In return this company will profit approximately $11.4 billion per annum. Smithfield Foods face the problem of fecal matter produced by the animals, estimated at 26 million tons per year. Imagine Monster Park, the stadium for the San Francisco 49ers filled a little over 3 times. The volume of waste is bred in airy, unprocessed slant floored barns that allow it to run into ground water and “river systems”. Pig’s bowel movements can hardly be considered normal at Smithfield, rather they should be considered highly toxic.

The animals occupy warehouses anywhere in packs of hundreds to thousands where sows are artificially inseminated and male hogs are trampling each other to death. There is no evidence of sunlight, fresh air or earth in these warehouses. The slopped floors have pits underneath them that are often overflowing with afterbirth, dead piglets, batteries, broken bottles of insecticide, antibiotic syringes and stillborn pigs or anything that could fall through wide pipes. Once these pipes are pushing at the brim they will explode into a holding pond. The pigs become highly susceptible to infectious diseases because of the conditions that they are kept in. Once a pig is diseased it can spread like rapid fire to other pigs. Therefore, they are fed massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them alive. Of course, these chemicals are contained in the pig’s fecal waste.

Smithfield “river systems” are called, lagoons, which cover 120,000 square feet with depths up to 30 feet. The lagoons are pink, from blood and afterbirth, rather than brown or green. The ponds are frequently overflowing and even the slightest rain can flood them. In order to eliminate run over, the workers will pump the lagoon and spray the liquid onto nearby fields. The surrounding area is completely drenched with liquid animal feces including dripping tree branches. Some of the ponds are lined with polyethylene that can be easily be punctured with sharp objects. Meaning, that once the gases from the feces are fermented and combined with polyethylene it can cause an explosion. The lagoon contains liquid so volatile that people “choke” on the fumes, drown, and die from the chemicals inside. It would be a deadly risk to try and rescue someone trapped in the pond.

A river that collects waste from a hog farm begins to die rapidly. Pollutants and microorganisms can kill all water life. Millions of fish have died due to the toxic waste in the water. It has been said that the foul stench of dead fish can be smelt throughout the whole county. Accounts of billions of floating, fish eyes and scales have covered the riverbanks.
Pfisteria piscieda, a microbe in its toxic form, is yet another environmental hazard waste produced by pig’s bowel movements. It has killed a billion fish and injured dozens of people. Fish can form bleeding open sores on their bodies as it slowly eats away at them. Fishermen who have inhaled these blooms have endured harsh respiratory difficulty, headaches, blurry vision and logical impairment. One side effect is accounts of fisherman forgetting how to get home. It takes weeks or months for the brain and lungs to recover from Pfisteria.

Tar Heel dumps more lethal waste in the water in one year alone than all but three other industrial facilities in the United States. Smithfield is responsible for spilling, in a span of four years, 2 million galloons of pig feces into the Cape Fear River. Other bodies of water such as Persimmon Branch, Trent River and Turkey Creek were greatly affected by the spills. Smithfield endured millions in fines when a Virginia plant violated the Clean Water Act with a whooping 6,900 infringements.

Not only do the lagoons produce chemical ridden water but it also pollutes the air. Studies have shown that hundreds of gases are released into the atmosphere. What is the most shocking is that millions of bacteria are emitted into the air, as well. Nitrogen gases are discharged into the air, which falls back to the earth depriving lakes and fish of oxygen, these 300 tons, then kill the fish and generate algal blooms. The populations that inhale said chemicals suffer from bronchitis, asthma, headaches, diarrhea, heart palpitations, nosebleeds and brain damage. Nausea is just another sign of residing in a town close to Tar Heel. Imagine stepping foot outside of your home to enjoy a pleasant day only to pass out from nausea. People have also been known to experience high levels of depression, tension, anger, fatigue and confusion.

An environmental activist such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tried to make an impact on Smithfield. However, the business somehow bypasses the law on a constant basis. The hog farming industry has made astounding contributions to campaigns such as a contribution in 1995 given to the Governor’s political action committee. The idea was to get the state of Virginia to drop the charges of fines given to Luter’s company for pollution. In the end the state has failed on numerous occasions to employ enough inspectors to guarantee that hog farmers are up to ecological standards.

Recently, laws have been passed in order to decrease the growth and size of hog farmers. In some states it may be required that the farms meet waste-disposal standards, furthermore, using the waste-lagoon structure is prohibited. Specifically, Smithfield is now obligated to finance research into alternative removal technologies. The federal government has questioned Smithfield’s deals and in some circumstances, has forced the business to alter its waste-lagoon system.

Due to restrictions placed on Smithfield, Luter announced that he has opened a new farm in Poland, conjoined with Prima Farms, where the laws are unrestricted. This means that he is free to do as he pleases without contributing to alternative waste technologies. The farm in Poland rakes in $338 million per a year. Smithfield has already started polluting nearby pools of water. Furthermore, farmers without permits were directly dumping waste into the Baltic Sea recently.

There is no telling how badly this disaster has affected people in this and nearby cities, and probably won’t for some time. Sadly, time does not heal all wounds in instances like this

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