Consumers deserve to know the truth behind how their food was produced. Increasingly, consumers want to purchase safe and ethical goods. For example, since COVID-19 spread so rampantly among food chain workers, consumers have become increasingly concerned with the safety of workers who grow, process, and deliver their food. While the ‘vote with your dollar’ paradigm is not the only solution to a food system that needs fundamental system change, it is an important piece of the puzzle. When consumers buy meat that was regeneratively raised, they support the farmers and meatpackers who are paving the way towards a just and ecologically sustainable food system.
However, the meat industry exploits consumers’ desires to purchase ethically. Companies like Hormel and Smithfield portray an image of animals raised humanely, processed by workers treated with dignity. This would be great if it were true – but it‘s not. When companies make false claims about their products, it deceives consumers and prevents them from having the information they need to make the best choices.
That’s why we are suing Smithfield for lying to consumers about worker protections. Meatpacking workers were hit hard by the pandemic as a result of unsafe working conditions: they were forced to work shoulder-to-shoulder on crowded processing lines, unable to access appropriate sick leave, and lacked adequate personal protective equipment. Nearly 60,000 meatpacking workers contracted the deadly virus – a total much higher than original estimated.
While workers were gravely endangered, Smithfield claimed it was aggressively protecting them. This was not the case. Our lawsuit representing Food & Water Watch alleges that Smithfield Foods repeatedly lied to consumers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic so it could protect its bottom line—at the expense of its workers’ lives. The company also falsely claimed that meat shortages were imminent, while increasing exports and maintaining freezers full of meat.
Hormel Foods, another meat corporation, similarly takes advantage of consumers’ desires to consume ethically. Hormel markets its “Natural Choice®” products as “100% Natural” and “All-Natural.” Taking advantage of consumers’ beliefs that “natural” meat means raised sustainably. However, we discovered that Hormel’s “natural” products are anything but, coming from animals raised in the worst factory farms and including additives, hormones, and antibiotics. On behalf of Animal Legal Defense Fund, we are suing Hormel for misleading consumers.
