Read this article if you are unfamiliar with the wonders of Smithfield.
After I read it, I threw the bag of Smithfield bacon crumbs out of my fridge and will never buy their products again.
As bad as Tyson. This is not food. This is garbage – for us, the workers, AND the animals.
Next Monday is International Human Rights Day, and Justice@Smithfield supporters plan to commemorate by drawing attention to human rights abuses at Smithfield’s Tar Heel Plant. Working conditions at the plant rank among the most brutal in the United States, and, in years past, were even profiled by the international watchdog Human Rights Watch.
As many of you know, television chef Paula Deen has become the paid public spokeswoman for the company. This holiday season, you’ll be seeing her face turn up on pork products at your local supermarket, many of which originate from the plant in Tar Heel. With such high visibility and influence within the company, we believe that Paula is in a unique position to steer the company toward a more humane path. But we need your help!
On Monday, December 10
Contact Paula
Ask Her to Be a Human Rights Leader for Smithfield!Call Her Up at her Savannah Restaurant:
(912) 233-2600Or Use the Email Contact Form on Her Website
For the past two weeks, Paula has been traveling the country to promote her new recipe book. At every stop along the way, from Washington to Chicago to Minneapolis to Portland, supporters of Smithfield’s Tar Heel workers have been asking her, very publicly, to stand up for the rights of the workers. And word is starting to spread. Last week the Chicago Sun Times ran a column asking her to “put reality on the menu.” And in an appearance on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show last Wednesday, the final fifteen minutes were entirely dedicated to worker abuses at the plant. [listen]
On Monday, December 10th, supporters will be welcoming Paula back home, with a Human Rights Day demonstration in Savannah, Georgia. If you’re in the area, or you know folks in that neck of the woods, you can join up with them at both 11:30 A.M. or 5:30 P.M. on the corner of Whitaker and Congress Streets in Downtown Savannah.
For everybody that can’t make it to Savannah, please take a moment to call or Email Paula personally, and ask her to be a leader for human rights at Smithfield!
2 Responses
I read the article. Man, that’s awful.
I eat hardly any pork, mostly in the form of a little bacon every so often. I”m done.
Unfortunately, the article said little about human rights abuses.
One of my uncles used to run a pig farm in Nebraska but his animals were treated well. These large corporations have bought up all the small farms and turned our food into industrial waste. It disgusts me, and even more so that most Americans are totally oblivious to the factory farming.
We need to wake up, about so, so many things.