Something

Smithfield Foods is the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, with revenues approaching $12 billion in fiscal year 2007. In the United States, Smithfield is also the leader in turkey processing, cattle feeding, and several packaged meats categories as well as the fifth-largest beef processor. From national brands and regional powerhouses in the U.S. to some of the best-known European brands, Smithfield Foods packages meats that are purchased by retail, foodservice, and deli customers (2008).

Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, longtime Chairman and CEO, Joseph W. Luter III, vision was to drive down cost and push up sales. Luter introduced a vertical integration strategy to control all aspects of a product’s development, manufacturing, and distribution in 1981 and to date; the company has completed 30 acquisitions. In the meat industry, vertical integration refers specifically to maintain control over both livestock production and meat processing which allows for greater product consistency and traceability (Thompson, 2006, p. C-172).

Over the last decade, Smithfield Foods had met with mounting opposition to expansion of its business, particularly in hog farming. The main opposition is Smithfield Foods’ neighboring residents to its 8,000 plus North Carolina hog farms, who claim, hog farming has been imposed on them and that the adverse impact in low wages, environmental damages, maltreatment of the hogs, and overall water safety is not worth the profits (Thompson, 2006, p. C-172).

In 2006, Smithfield Foods made Fortune magazine’s annual list of America’s Most Admired Companies, ranking third among all U.S. food production companies. Fortune describes its annual list of America’s Most Admired Companies as a “definitive report card” on corporate reputations (2006).