Smithfield Foods comes to Canada as the largest vertically integrated hog processing company in the United States, and with a heavy environmental albatross hanging around its neck.
Smithfield appears to have successfully gained control of Canadian pig packer Schneider Corporation.
In August Smithfield Foods was fined $18 million (U.S.) for polluting the Pagan River in Virginia. The company has appealed the fine.
It is the largest river pollution fine ever levied by the U.S. federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Brandon environmentalist Bill Paton said, when contacted by a reporter, that he hadn’t heard of the fine, but “if they’re accused of that in the States, then we should be very, very wary of their performance up here.”
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Smithfield’s fine was based on phosphorus pollution in the Pagan River caused by the company’s processing plants in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Smithfield Foods vice-president Aaron Trub said the company has had “absolutely no problems with any” of its hog barns in North Carolina and Virginia.
“I think our track record, environmentally, in our hog production units is outstanding,” Trub said.
Smithfield considers the EPA fine “not fair” and “politically motivated.”
Trub said Canadians don’t have to fear pollution from Smithfield.
“I can’t see why Schneider in its new operations can’t be as good an environmental citizen in Canada as Maple Leaf or any other company,” Trub said.
