A consumer advocacy group has sued Smithfield Foods, charging the giant pork processor with lying about the state of meat supplies during the pandemic to spike sales.
Food and Water Watch filed the suit last week in federal court in Washington, D.C. It alleges that in warning of an impending meat shortage early last year, Smithfield was falsely stoking consumer fears.
Smithfield and other industry giants warned that plant closings due to COVID would interrupt the meat supply pipeline and possibly cause shortages. But the Food and Water Watch lawsuit charges that there actually were sufficient supplies of meat in the nation’s supply chain, and that pork was being exported to China while the industry was warning of low supplies.
“This fear mongering creates a revenue-generating feedback loop,” the lawsuit charges. Smithfield replied in a statement to the New York Times that it made every effort to protect its workers, and that “the advocacy organizations who make these claims have a stated goal of dismantling the efforts of our hard-working employees, who take great pride in safely producing food products.”
