hpski

More on Pork, China and Smithfield Foods

SFD's treatment of its animals, not to mention contracted farmers, has been dismal. The company's environmental impact is a legacy of well placed political donations & lobbying efforts designed to circumnavigate federal & local clean water regs. Of course their web site tells a charming story of their respect for the environment, which has more holes in it than Sonny Corleone at a toll plaza. Loss of animals from disease is usually due to extremely inhumane, cramped living conditions, expediting microbial transfer and random mutations, leading to more resistant strains. Add antibiotics to this, and you have the classic arms race, creating "superbugs". The last thing I would ever ingest would be something that says "Smithfield" on it - yeah, the pork may be tasty, but it's also a witches brew of hormones & antibiotics, not to mention the factory farm induced psychosis of the deceased pig. I agree that the China connection will have little impact on SFD's bottom line - however, when the dems take the WH in 08', SFD may have to invest more in its infrastructure to ameliorate the above ongoing situation, possibly reducing its margins.