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7 unusual facts about Smithfield Foods


Aoste, Isère

The pork products produced in Isère department and especially the Jambon Aoste (Aoste Ham) are manufactured exclusively in this Groupe Aoste factory which was owned by the industrial group Sara Lee Corporation who ceased their activities in deli products and resold the operation to the American buyer Smithfield Foods through which it passed to the Chinese group Shuanghui in September 2013.

P. D. Gwaltney, Jr., House

It was the primary residence of Pembroke Decauter Gwaltney, Jr., of the Gwaltney meat empire.

Smithfield Foods

Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, it runs facilities in 26 U.S. states, including the largest slaughterhouse and meat-processing plant in the world, located in Tar Heel, North Carolina.

A grandson, Joseph W. Luter III, joined the company the same year, and in 1966 became chairman and CEO until Smithfield was taken over by Liberty Equities in 1969.

A Smithfield manager testified in 1998, during an unfair labor practices trial, that at the Tar Heel plant in North Carolina it takes between five and ten minutes to slaughter and complete the process of "disassembly" of an animal, including draining, cleaning, and cleaving.

Smithfield, Virginia

Currently, Smithfield Foods, a Fortune 500 Company that owns Smithfield Packing Company and others, is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer.

Tito Alberti

This experience was cut short, however, by his father's death in 1940, following which he was forced to find employment at Zárate's important Smithfield Foods abattoir.


Agriculture in Romania

Several major companies have entered the Romanian market, including Smithfield Foods, Cargill, Bunge, Glencore, Lactalis and Meggle.


see also

Pig Business

Controversy also surrounds the half-owned Smithfield Foods pig sheds near the village of La Gloria, Mexico, where as many as 1,800 villagers living near the plant had already complained of respiratory problems and 400 had been treated before the 2009 swine flu outbreak.