Because they have lots of money. But are we benefitting?

They continue to pollute our water (and our air daily);

Smithfield Foods’ Sioux Falls plant is facing more than $45,000 in fines after state officials discovered the facility discharged wastewater into the Big Sioux River.

The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has fined Smithfield Foods $46,260 for surface water discharge permit violations.

According to the DENR, between February 1, 2019, and July 31, 2019, Smithfield reported violations of its permit limits for total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia, fecal coliform, and toxicity test.

Recently Smithfield expanded their hog kill operation. The city gladly and quietly gave them the building permits.

Before I get to deep into this, I don’t want Smithfield to completely go away, but I would like them to do two important things, 1) Move out of Sioux Falls in a rural area 2) Stop polluting our river and air.

As most people know, or do not know, Smithfield is owned by Chinese investors. They avoid tariffs because, well, they are here. They also avoid millions in corporate taxes because they are in South Dakota. As taxpayers we get ZERO benefits from a foreign company being here. It’s kind of like pipelines going through our state.

One of the main arguments of keeping ‘Stinkyfield’ around is that they provide jobs, which helps are economy. Okay, that’s true, to an extent.

But after the union was pretty much busted up at Smithfield, most of the people that work there are not from here, and if the place closed, they would leave. That isn’t an anti-immigrant statement, that’s just how it works. But it would also present us with an opportunity to retrain those workers into the tech or manufacturing industry. While the Governor and Mayor have been out promoting this industry, they also have the power to shut down Smithfield due to their environmental issues, and continually do nothing.

The people profiting from this venture are NOT your neighbors, they are communists. With all our anti-socialism rhetoric here, you would think we would be appalled.

I have an important question to ask of Noem and TenHaken. How do you make Sioux Falls, South Dakota appealing to tech companies when this place smells like hog sh*t? As my stepfather used to say, “That’s the smell of money.”

5 Thoughts on “Why do we continue to tolerate Smithfield Foods?

  1. All excellent points. Hard to believe this is tolerated in our city. I have heard of so many wastewater violations from this company since I moved here 8 years ago.

    And the fact they are completely Chinese owned makes it even worse. Wish they could move their stinky plant 15 or 20 miles out of town with a lot more oversight over their tendency for polluting.

  2. "Very Stable Genius" on November 24, 2019 at 9:39 pm said:

    The Smithfield/Chinese relationship relative to South Dakota is amazing, isn’t it?

    But then again, I recall former Governor Daugaard speaking on Inside KELOLAND back in ’13 or ’14, where he talked about a recent SD trade delegation trip to China by him and some fellow South Dakota pizza businessmen, where the former governor suggested that China was just “a little more socialist,” than us.

    So I guess, if the GOP in SD think that China is just “a little more socialist,” than us, then when are the state police going to show up here to hose down demonstrators? Oh what a minute, the GOP here is already trying to tell professors what to say, aren’t they?

    All of this is just further proof, that the political structure of a communist country and the business structure of a corporation are eerily similar, right? I mean you have a chairman, a Politburo (board of directors), and then a powerless “Supreme Soviet” (a congregation of stockholders); and when you have these similarities, and similarities on both sides of the globe, then why wouldn’t the SD GOP and communist China get along and be one in the same?

  3. Its a huge joke and a slap to the taxpayers faces how often Smithfield is able to get away with weak fines for polluting the river with very toxic waste. If it was a citizen in the city doing the same time they would be facing large fines and jail time.

  4. Pancy Nelosi on November 24, 2019 at 10:20 pm said:

    Smithfield Foods gladly pays the fine rather then putting in the capital investment to prevent it. Wasn’t the fine like $50,000? Just keep paying that periodically rather than paying millions for the equipment investment. Simple math for accountants.

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