One of the Biggest U.S. Meat Companies Has Officially Been Bought Out by a $15 Billion Chinese Processing Conglomerate

Smithfield Foods is the largest pork manufacturer in the U.S. PHOTO: Flickr, theimpulsivebuy

The top producer of pork in the United States, the Smithfield Corporation of Smithfield, Virginia, is well known for its line of sausages, roasts, ribs, bacon and more. These types of processed meats are favorites among United States customers, where they are widely eaten at Sunday breakfasts, diners and breakfast spots across the country, and in other ways.

Smithfield raked in $15.13 billion in revenue in their last 12-month revenue cycle ending in March 2025, down from 22-plus billion in 2017.

What most people don’t realize about Smithfield is the company that owns it, which is based far outside of the United States but continues to operate pig raising and processing hubs inside of the United States that have been widely criticized for mercilessly polluting the environments where they are currently located.

Smithfield Foods Farm Exposed

The Smithfield Company is now operated by Chinese conglomerate WH Foods, which purchased Smithfield in 2013 under the nose of millions of American consumers.

In 2017, drone footage discovered horrifying environmental damage at the largest pork farming facility in the United States – Smithfield Foods, Inc. Secret recordings shot an eagle-eye view of what seems like a four-times football-stadium sized “lake” full of blood.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that it was urine and feces from the company’s pigs.

Secretly recorded by Mark Devries, this footage is a part of his investigative documentary on factory farming called “Speciesism: The Movie.”

According to the movie review, it is full of “troubling revelations” of society’s denial, ignorance and indifference towards the treatment of animals as well as our environment.

As shown in the secret footage, Smithfield seems unmoved by harsh criticisms of its practices.

The video shows a row of long buildings where pigs are jammed together, unable to move.

Their feces and urine is flushed into an outside “pool.”

But it’s not just the animals that suffer. People pay a price for this practice too.

“…The pit will fill up, so it has to be emptied. And it’s emptied by spraying the liquid waste…If you are familiar with a garden sprayer, they are gigantic versions of that. They are making droplets of fine mist out of this liquid waste and that can drift downwind into the neighboring communities,” explains Dr. Steve Wing of University of North Carolina.
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‘Health Repercussions’ by Chinese Owned Smithfield

People living around the farm have to tolerate the horrible smell from the factory. It doesn’t just make people gag, it also carries health repercussions.

“There are a number of studies of asthma and asthma symptoms particularly in children near these facilities. Among adults there are reports of several types of upper respiratory symptoms. These pollutants are affecting blood pressure,” Dr. Wing said.

Communities around these factory farms are usually low-income families, who do not have the money or the resources to fight against a big corporation. They have to live inside, without fresh air, with doors and windows shut. Sometimes it sounds like it’s raining, but it is the factory sprayer.

“Children are being made sick…animals are being abused, and everyday people’s lives are ruined by the stench of cesspools in their backyards. Thousands of lakes of toxic waste must be among the most bizarre and disturbing environmental phenomena that I have ever confronted and they’ve been kept well hidden from the public for long enough,” said Speciesism: The Movie director Mark Devries.

This factory farm centric system is has become the norm throughout the United States, with an estimated 99 percent of all farm animals in the United States currently living in such condtions.

Smithfield’s Chinese ownership has also raised questions of foreign land ownership in the United States which has been “steadily increasing” in recent years according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, which said in January 2025 that a 1.58 million acre increase in foreign land purchases was recorded between 2022 and 2023.

Grass-fed animals and grass-fed/pasture raised meat products often come from overseas places like New Zealand while American family farmers struggle to gain market share in a factory farm dominated world.

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Smithfield Foods’s original response to the footage was brief.

The company said all of the practices were done following regulation; all the permits are available to public; and that the farm appeared “clean and well maintained.”

Does it look clean to you?

Watch the segment about Smithfield Foods from the movie: