Today we are excited to release a new video, “Producing Enough Sustainable Food,” that ponders the question and shows what we, and the pork industry, are doing to help feed the world’s growing population with food that is produced both responsibly and sustainably.

 “We’re very excited about this video because it provides an engaging way to show what Smithfield Foods, along with the rest of the pork industry, is doing to meet the challenge of providing not only sustainable food, but enough of it to feed a rapidly growing population,” said our CEO Larry Pope.

 The video is available on YouTube. 

Before last quarter’s meeting, council members had a unique chance to tour one of our sow farms in the Midwest. This farm offered valuable insight because it uses three types of pregnant sow housing arrangements: individual stall housing, free-access pen housing and open-pen housing.

• Individual Sow Housing: Used by most of the pork industry, this system puts pregnant sows in individual stalls for the duration of their pregnancy. This system allows for individual medical care and attention, minimizes fighting between sows, and allows personnel to monitor a sow’s pregnancy more accurately. Murphy-Brown (our hog production subsidiary) has chosen to convert to the other two types of systems on our company-owned farms because of customer concerns about the care of animals in individual sow housing.
• Free Access Housing: In this system, a large group of sows (between 30 and 40) has access to a common area for lounging and exercise as well as access to individual stalls used for feeding. Sows can come and go as they please and can close a gate behind them in the stalls if they choose. It is worth noting that 90% of sows choose to spend a majority of their time in the individual stalls rather than in the common area.
• Small Group Housing: This form of housing allows six sows to be in a common open pen once they are confirmed pregnant. These pens include six feeding stations, which helps to minimize fighting between sows for feed.

It’s important for our animal care experts to understand the benefits and challenges associated with each type of housing to ensure our company is providing the best care possible for all our animals.

Want to see snapshots of the group’s tour? Check out our photo album on Facebook: 

While the conversion slowed during the recent recession due to significant operating losses, at our September 2010 shareholders meeting, Smithfield announced that significant resources had again been committed to the conversion. We also resolved to announce our progress on a regular basis.

We are now confident that by December 31, 2011, we will have completed conversions for 30% of the sows on our farms, which was our target for this year.

Smithfield was the first major producer in our industry (which includes over 60,000 producers) to publicly commit to converting sow housing to group pens and remains the only large producer to do so. We will continue the conversion as planned with the goal of completing conversion for all sows on company farms by the end of 2017, and today we are on course to achieve that goal. While we initially had concerns during the recession about whether we could meet the 2017 goal, we are now back on track and barring unforeseen circumstances beyond our control we are confident that we will achieve our stated goal.

At the outset, I need to point out that HSUS’ accusations about our company not living up to its social responsibility commitments are misleading and baseless. Specifically, HSUS referred to our commitment to phase out gestation stalls, how we treat our animals and our new video series, Taking the Mystery Out of Pork Production. Allow me to address each of these issues.

First, HSUS suggests that Smithfield has backed away from our stated goal of phasing out gestation stalls in favor of group housing at our company-owned sow farms by 2017, but nothing could be further from the truth.

While the dramatic economic downturn of three years ago temporarily slowed our efforts in phasing out gestation stalls, we steadfastly stood by our commitment to ultimately achieve this goal. Our commitment has never wavered, as evidenced by our progress in converting 30 percent of our sows to group housing by the end of 2011, and our commitment to spend more than $300 million to achieve our stated goal. I invite you to read about our progress at www.smithfieldcommitments.com.

Second, the well-being of all our animals is one of our highest priorities, which is why we consistently seek input from our customers, consumers like yourself, experts in animal husbandry, veterinarians and animal behavior specialists.  

We implement and monitor the practices at our farms through an industry-leading Animal Care Policy. This policy is more than just words—it articulates the principles and expectations to which we hold all employees accountable and guides the daily activities of all of our company-owned farms and those of our contract growers. In sum, we want our animals to be safe, comfortable, and healthy. Willful neglect or abuse of animals is not tolerated and will result in immediate termination. When mistakes are made or violations of our policies occur, we correct them.

Third, our website video series is not some slick production glossing over how pork is produced. The employees in the videos are real employees who were not scripted. They were told to express their own feelings about their jobs, and the work they do. And we could never have gotten renowned animal expert Dr. Temple Grandin to present the introduction to the videos if we had misrepresented the facts.

Beyond that, our concerted social responsibility efforts during the past decade have resulted in third-party recognition that we are very proud of. Most significantly, we were the first in our industry to achieve ISO 14001 environmental certification for all of our U.S. hog production and pork processing facilities. ISO 14001 is the international gold standard for environmental management. In addition, Smithfield Foods has been consistently named to FORTUNE magazine’s prestigious annual list of America’s Most Admired Companies. Companies are rated on eight criteria, from investment value to social responsibility.

At the same time, I need to underscore that we’re not saying that we’re perfect. We have made mistakes in the past, but we have learned from them and we have redoubled our efforts to behave in a socially responsible manner. This is a journey, but we believe we’re on the right track.

Because we are so passionate about doing the right thing, we welcome all who are interested in learning more about our company’s practices and commitments. We stand by the information we provide and our proven track record, which can all be found at www.smithfieldcommitments.com.

I hope this information addresses your concerns and that we take your opinions very seriously. Thank you for your interest in Smithfield Foods.  

Sincerely,

Dennis H. Treacy
Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs
and Chief Sustainability Officer 

One of the first operations to be converted was in Utah. We are also currently converting operations in Waverly, Virginia. We expect to have nearly 30 percent of our company-owned sows housed in group housing by the end of 2011.

If you’re like most consumers, you’ve had questions about where your food comes from, and you’ve most likely gone to the Internet or TV to find answers. The development of social media and video sharing in America and around the world has provided a great opportunity for food producers.

Our desire is to show consumers the truth about what we do, in order to dispel rumors, correct misinformation, and answer consumers’ questions about the farm side of our operations. Optimally, we would invite each and every consumer to tour our facilities and see firsthand that we care for our employees, animals, and the environment. But of course, arranging tours on such a large scale is impossible. Aside from the logistical issues associated with millions of people touring facilities, we cannot compromise the comfort and safety of our animals—there are bio security concerns associated with so many potential visitors to hog farms as well as concerns about causing stress to the animals.

In light of these concerns, last year Murphy-Brown began documenting hog production through video. This footage is the first of its kind in the modern pork industry, and Murphy-Brown hoped that it would be used in educational capacities, used by traditional media outlets in news reporting, and would be viewed by the public. This way, even though consumers cannot physically tour the farm, they are still able to learn about their practices and values.

The filming and editing process took many months and included trips to facilities across the country and meetings with farmers, animal care experts like Temple Grandin, company employees, veterinarians, and company executives. It eventually resulted in the creation of seven videos, ranging in length from three to 10 minutes. The videos were officially released on March 7, 2011, and the story was picked up by the Associated Press along with many other mainstream media sources. Various industry publications have also asked for interviews and comments regarding the video series and what it means to the pork industry. The videos received over 8,000 views on their release day and have over 27,000 views to date.

You can view the videos on our YouTube page, our SchoolTube page, and on Murphy-Brown’s corporate website.

The Peninsula SPCA was established in 1963, and its mission is to advocate and provide for the humane care and welfare of animals in their community. Henry joined the group in 2007 after the untimely death of his dog “Little Bear.” Along with his wife, he wanted find a way to help animals find adoptive homes so other families could enjoy them as much as his wife and he had enjoyed Little Bear. They decided to give a donation to the Peninsula SPCA and established what has come to be known as the “Little Bear Fund.” This fund (now containing over $19,000) allows the SPCA to treat otherwise adoptable injured animals that would normally be euthanized because of their injuries. Since its creation, the Little Bear Fund has helped many animals obtain surgeries and then find adoptive homes, including one severely abused dog that needed to have both eyes removed.

Henry doesn’t see any conflict between his position at Smithfield and his passion for the humane care of animals. “It’s all about humane treatment,” Henry noted. “Agricultural animals are raised for a purpose, and we just need to ensure they are treated as well as possible while in our care.” He talked about his days many years ago working in a pork processing plant before working with Smithfield, and the abuse he witnessed there. “We have policies and procedures in place here at Smithfield to make sure we don’t tolerate animals being treated that way. There’s no reason for any kind of abuse to happen, and it breaks my heart when it does.”

He is excited about a recent restructuring of the leadership of the Peninsula SPCA; they have a new board and a new vision that includes a policy they call an “Adoption Guarantee.” This policy means that the Peninsula SPCA will find homes for 100 percent of adoptable animals that come into their facility. “It’s going to be a long road. We won’t be there in half a year, a year, or maybe even in a few years, but it’s where we’re headed and it’s the right thing to do.”