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Smithfield Hog Production Division, formerly Premium Standard Farms, Inc. (PSF), is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Premium Standard Farms was the second-largest pork producer and the sixth-largest processor in the United States until Smithfield Foods acquired it in 2007.[1][2][3]

In 2013, the company was acquired by Shuanghui International, China’s largest pork producer.[4]

History

PSF was founded in 1988 in Smithfield, Virginia,[5] with the aim of creating a standardized method to produce premium pork. To accomplish this goal, the company decided to pursue full vertical integration—a first for pork producers in the United States.[citation needed]

In 2007, Smithfield acquired Premium Standard Farms for $800 million in cash, stock, and debt.[6][5]

Locations

Smithfield Hog Production is headquartered in Princeton, Missouri[citation needed] and owns a pork processing plant located in Milan, Missouri.[7] At one time, the company operated 132 company-owned farms and 109 contract farms in the state of Missouri, in addition to a leased farm and eight feed mills.[8]

In July 2021, the company closed its original slaughter plant in Smithfield, Virginia.[8][9]

In February 2023, Smithfield Foods closed its meatpacking plant in Vernon, California.[10][11][12]

In May 2023, the company closed 37 sow farms in Missouri.[8][13][14]

In October 2023 the company shut down a pork plant in Charlotte, North Carolina.[15]

In December 2023 Smithfield ended contracts with 26 hog farms in Utah citing oversupply.[15]

Methane harvesting

Valley View Farm, near Green Castle, Missouri, is a finishing site that houses more than 100,000 hogs at any given time. Half of the site's waste lagoons are covered to allow the harvesting of methane gas.[16] Smithfield also has farms that engage in methane harvesting in Bethany and Princeton.[17]

Smithfield built a connection from its farms in northern Missouri to the pipeline that supplies natural gas to Milan, Missouri. Fuel produced by Smithfield is mixed directly into Milan's gas supply.[18] This project took 18 months.

Smithfield has formed a partnership with Roeslein Alternative Energy and Monarch Bioenergy, to help produce biogas.[18][17] In early 2020, Smithfield and Roesleing Alternative Energy announced an additional $45 million investment in Monarch. This money will be used to expand Monarch's renewable natural gas capture and distribution to at least 85% of Smithfield's Missouri farms.[19]

Smithfield's gas harvesting efforts are part of its stated goal of reducing its greenhouse gas footprint by 25%. This is using the company's 2010 emissions as the base for calculation.[18][17]

Litigation

In 2010, a Jackson County, Missouri, jury awarded seven neighboring farmers $11 million in damages for odors emanating from a 4,300 acre finishing farm near Berlin in Gentry County, Missouri where an estimated 200,000 hogs are processed annually. In 2006, six plaintiffs were awarded $4.6 million from the lawsuit (the largest in a hog farm odor issue), originally filed in 1999.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b Hog farm operators ordered to pay $11M for odor - St. Louis Bizjournal - March 5, 2010
  2. ^ a b "History of Premium Standard Farms, Inc. – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com.
  3. ^ Burrows, Dan (18 September 2006). "Smithfield Foods to buy Premium Standard Farms". Market Watch. Dow Jones. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  4. ^ Hein, Treena (2023-05-02). "Smithfield closing almost 40 farms in Missouri". Pig Progress. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  5. ^ a b Kilman, Scott (2006-09-19). "Smithfield to Buy Hog Farmer Premium Standard". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  6. ^ "Smithfield Foods finishes buying rival". thestar.com. 2007-05-08. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  7. ^ McCarthy, Ella (2022-06-13). "Processing a transformation: How industry remade Milan". Columbia Missourian. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  8. ^ a b c Hein, Treena (2023-05-02). "Smithfield closing almost 40 farms in Missouri". Pig Progress. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  9. ^ Polansek, Tom (2021-07-13). "Smithfield Foods stops slaughtering pigs at U.S. hometown plant". Reuters.
  10. ^ "Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon to close soon". ABC7 Los Angeles. 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  11. ^ Lee, Kurtis (2022-08-01). "Why an Iconic California Meatpacking Plant Is Closing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  12. ^ "Smithfield Foods to shutter California meat-packing plant". The Hill. 2022-06-11. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  13. ^ Desk, KTVO News (2023-04-28). "Smithfield Foods reportedly closing northern Missouri sow farms". KTVO. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  14. ^ "37 Missouri Smithfield sow farms may be closing this month". AG DAILY. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  15. ^ a b Polansek, Tom (6 December 2023). "Smithfield Foods ends contracts with 26 US pig farms, citing oversupply". Reuters. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  16. ^ Freese, Betsy (14 November 2018). "BUTTERFLIES AND BIOGAS A FOCUS OF SMITHFIELD FOODS". Successful Farming. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  17. ^ a b c Chen, Eli (6 August 2019). "Access To Pig Manure-Powered Energy Grows In Northern Missouri". KBIA. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  18. ^ a b c "Smithfield Foods completes natural gas transmission line in Milan". National Hog Farmer. August 5, 2019.
  19. ^ "Smithfield Foods increases investment in renewable energy scheme". globalmeatnews.com.

External links

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium_Standard_Farms