New York Times: The Smithfield Menace

By JULIETTE ROSSANT As foodies and informed Americans we have watched our growing exports McDonald's and other fast food joints to the developing world and then heard reports of childhood obesity all over the third world in places like China and Saudi Arabia where the disease was unheard of before. Now, for something more insidious and shameful: the export of the meat industry's worst invention, Smithfield Foods. The New York Times published an excellent must-read article on the insidious infiltration of Eastern Europe by the Virginia-based hog giant. The article details the transformation of the hog industries of Poland and Romania, through the use of EU subsidies and heavy-handed maneuvers by the company's executives. Smithfield has reduced the number of small farmers, transformed rural communities and created devastating pollution all in the name of cheap pork. Smithfield is now the biggest hog producer in Romania and a huge polluter: Smithfield farms in Romania’s Timis County are among the top sources of air and soil pollution, according to a local government report, which ranked the company’s individual farms No. 13 through No. 40. The report also indicates that methane gases in the air rose 65 percent between 2002 and 2007. Given that Romania wasn't exactly a model country for environmental awareness during the Communist period, these figures are frightening. Are we responsible, as a society, for what our corporations and companies do abroad? If we have already seen the horrendous effects of large scale hog production on rural communities in the US and Mexico, how can we stand by and let Smithfield repeat it abroad? If readers think that what happens in far-off Eastern Europe does not affects us directly, consider the current outbreak of "swine flu" outbreak: But Smithfield found it hard to overcome fallout from the swine fever outbreak that struck Cenei. At the time, hog corpses lay in heaps, and residents remember chaotic efforts to shoot and burn them. That particular strain affects only hogs, but scientists have found elements of swine viruses — one from Europe or Asia, the other from North America — in the genetic code of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus. Super Chef urges all its readers to read the whole article and consider ways foodies can help to end the menace of cheap pork in Poland and Romania. Previous articles: [Chefs & Politics - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews, Smithfield --> back to Super Chef