Smithfield Projects To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Smithfield Foods, Inc. has announced, through the nationwide expansion of Smithfield Renewables, innovative projects designed to help meet its goal to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2025, which it set in concert with the Environmental Defense Fund.
A news release from the company states that as a part of the expansion of Smithfield Renewables, the company is:
• Setting the ambitious goal to implement “manure-to-energy” projects across 90 percent of Smithfield’s hog finishing spaces in North Carolina and Utah, and nearly all Smithfield’s hog finishing spaces in Missouri over the next ten years. This timeline will aid the company in achieving—and exceeding—its 25 by ’25 commitment.
• Converting existing anaerobic treatment lagoons to covered digesters or constructing new covered digesters to capture biogas, which will be transported to central processing facilities to be converted into renewable natural gas in North Carolina, Missouri and Utah.
• Launching new programs that target GHG reductions and bolster Smithfield’s sustainability efforts at farms, plants, and throughout the company’s transportation network.
With a commitment to innovation and continuous improvement, Smithfield has been researching and exploring sustainable ways to transform manure into energy for many years.
In Missouri, Smithfield and Roeslein Alternative Energy are embarking on a joint venture to launch the second phase of a project that currently converts manure collected from company-owned farms into RNG, enough to power 15,400 homes per year. By the end of this phase, Smithfield and RAE will have jointly installed biogas infrastructure across all company-owned finishing farms in Missouri. In 10 years, nearly 100 percent of Smithfield’s company-owned hog finishing spaces in Missouri will have the capabilities to produce RNG.
In addition to using manure to create RNG, this project will harvest prairie grass for methane generation. The harvested grasses, which supplement the biogas generation particularly during the cold winter months, are part of a prairie restoration effort that Smithfield has supported in northern Missouri for some time. Earlier this year, Smithfield expanded its support for these efforts by becoming the first food company to participate in EDF’s Monarch Butterfly Exchange, a program that restores monarch butterfly habitats on private lands including Smithfield hog farms in Missouri.
In addition to renewable energy projects, Smithfield is implementing several other projects across its operations and supply chain that will positively impact its carbon reduction efforts.
• On its hog farms, Smithfield is introducing new technologies that will reduce truck traffic and miles traveled by more than 85 percent on certain routes.
• Smithfield is adopting low trajectory application tools to more efficiently apply recycled nutrients to farmland.
• The company is planting more vegetative buffers on its farms.
• The company’s partnership with Anuvia Plant Nutrients reuses organic matter found in hog manure to create a commercial-grade fertilizer that achieves better crop yield compared to regular fertilizer.
• At its processing facilities, Smithfield is continuing to implement energy efficiency initiatives, including refrigeration, boiler, and other equipment projects.
• In its grain supply chain, Smithfield is on-track to meet its goal to source 75 percent of its grain from farmers who use efficient fertilizer and soil health practices.
• Smithfield will continue to collaborate with university and other partners to better quantify the impact of “waste-to-energy” technology on environmental outcomes and endeavor to further develop improvements to manure management systems.
An internal advisory committee evaluates these and future projects to ensure the company remains on track to meeting its GHG reduction goal and other renewable efforts.