Smithfield

TenHaken’s Pumpkin Policy Advisor doesn’t believe in mandates

In this interview with the administration’s newest advisor, she revealed something I have known about PTH for awhile;

“Our goal is to put something together that is realistic and achievable and well accepted by a diverse group of stakeholders and the public,” Harris said. “Sustainability should be a choice, and our job in government is to provide an education so people can make those choices. We aren’t doing mandates or forcing it on people because that isn’t how we want to govern. That isn’t how the mayor sees his role. He wants to be a uniting mayor.

I would agree that a mandate doesn’t always solve an issue, in fact it can make it a lot worse, but when it comes to climate change we have exhausted most options. Letting industry decide if or how they are going to tackle climate change in their respective private industries means they will just choose to NOT do what government suggests. They already are on record for that. Sustainability isn’t a question of giving options you have to give and mandate direction, you also need followup and enforcement.

Just look at the over 4,000 property owners over the past 2 years that were MANDATED to repair city owned sidewalks because of the multiple ADA lawsuits filed against the city. So when the city is under fire from the FEDs to get their poop in a group they turnaround and mandate taxpayers fix the very sidewalks they are being sued over. City ordinance is pretty clear, the city has the authority to MANDATE just like they would when it comes to sustainability. I would even argue that global warming is a much bigger threat then cracks in a sidewalk.

If this mayor wants to UNITE the community, why not UNITE them around cleaner air and water? Recently the Argus Leader touched on that very problem;

Everything in the EPA’s dataset looks squeaky-clean for South Dakota, except for one category: water releases in Sioux Falls. In 2021, Sioux Falls disposed more than 5 million pounds of toxic waste into the Big Sioux River, about 2.5% of the nation’s overall generated water waste.

Nearly all TRI-registered water releases in the city involve one source: Smithfield Foods’ Sioux Falls facility, formerly known as the John Morrell Co. meatpacking plant.

In many ways, the Sioux Falls meatpacker is one of the worst water polluters in the U.S,

So while the mayor and his policy advisor want UNIFICATION I think mandating a communist Chinese owned packing plant would be a better approach since ‘suggestions’ are NOT clearly working. Now let’s all join hands and sing Kum by yah while the earth is burning.

Does this mean Smithfield’s will close?

I find all this posturing about China kind of ironic considering we allow a Chinese owned packing plant to operate in Sioux Falls and send product to China;

This legislation codifies Governor Noem’s Executive Order 2023-02 by restricting state and local governments from contracting with six “Evil Foreign Governments,” including the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

“It’s very clear that throughout history that when we do business with another country that it becomes a more friendly neighborhood,” said Noem. “We are doing an exchange and commerce with them, barriers break down, there is more communication and information with that country because you are doing commerce with them. When it’s a country we don’t like, we shouldn’t be doing business with them.”

So I am guessing once this law goes into place Smithfield’s will be closed? I also see Mayor TenHaken decided to put his two cents in about foreign policy. This guy couldn’t even pick a mural, and he wants to give advice on national security?

Slaughterhouse petition is turned in

For the record I signed the petition. I am NOT in favor of another pig manure factory being built in Sioux Falls, but I also don’t think the problem is a NEW modern facility being built, the problem is the current one that is old, dilapidated and stinks up the whole downtown. We should be working on closing a plant that is owned by Chinese communists instead of trying to prevent a modern facility owned by local farmers being built.

While it will probably make the November ballot, which is good timing by the petitioners, I think it is a violation of the 5th and 14th amendments;

nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

I think Wholestone has fairly good legal standing to either stop this from making the ballot or stopping it if passed. They own the property and it is zoned correctly. There are probably numerous other legal avenues they have. I suspect this to make it to the SD Supreme Court.

*I heard yesterday that another processing plant is eyeing Sioux Falls besides Wholestone. I also heard that Wholestone will be fighting this.

Smithfield has to pay a $83 Million dollar fine for price fixing

At some point we are all just going to have to admit that having this company in our town isn’t such a great thing;

Smithfield Foods Inc said on Wednesday it will pay $83 million to settle litigation that accused several companies of conspiring to limit supply in the $20 billion-a-year U.S. pork market to inflate prices and their own profits.
The settlement with Smithfield resolves antitrust claims by “direct” purchasers such as Maplevale Farms that accused the nation’s largest pork companies of having fixed prices beginning in 2009.


So a company, owned by Communist Chinese Investors who have had to pay fines for EPA and DNR violations, who helped spread Covid in South Dakota, who might of lied about the American supply of pork and now is facing fines for price fixing somehow thinks they are doing us a favor by being here?

Hardly.

If I were in the State Legislature, on the County Commission or City Council I would be working diligently to close this place down.

Is there a connection between Smithfield & Wholestone Foods?

The short answer is I have no idea, and I really didn’t ponder it until someone told me the other day that many of the execs with Wholestone are former Smithfield management.

There is also the question of who really owns the CAFOs that produce the meat for these plants? Is it local farmers or are they simply contracted by the packers like Smithfield and Wholestone which have ownership in the farms? Maybe the producers are merely leasing from the packers?

I don’t know. But I do know that is how it works with poultry.

In my couple minutes of digging on the interwebs I could find little about Chinese investors in CAFOs and Smithfield’s possible investment in Wholestone. Maybe this is a backdoor plan to close the DTSF plant and transfer all operations to the new plant? 

Wondering if one of Sioux Falls’ super talented investigative journalists will dig into this and find a connection, or maybe NO connection. Oh, that’s right, we don’t have any of those in Sioux Falls but we do have a lot of hog sh!t.