Smithfield Foods, the US’s largest hog producer, has agreed to honour restrictions placed on swine producer Premium Standard Farms by the state of Missouri.
Premium Standard Farms, which was purchased by Smithfield last month, was ordered by a Missouri court in 1999 to install new technology to reduce odour and waste coming from pig farms in five northern Missouri counties, which Smithfield has agreed to honour.
Smithfield has also promised to purchase a certain percentage of pigs from Missouri farms, honour current contracts with Missouri supplies, and employ 75 full-time workers at its expanded Milan plant. Plus use the Department of Homeland Security’s Electronic Employer Verification System to ensure workers are legal US residents.
In addition Smithfield is to give US$250,000 to the University of Missouri-Columbia for veterinary medicine and agricultural economic scholarships. The company is also to donate $100,000 for community groups in towns where it operates plants.
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