By Dr. Mercola | 25 April 2017
MERCOLA — The world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, is branching out from ham and bacon toward the business of organ transplantation. The CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) giant has even created a new bioscience unit for this purpose, in the hopes of growing pig organs that could one day be transplanted into humans.1
In 2013, Smithfield was bought by WH Group (formerly known as Shaunghui), the largest meat processing company in China.2 At $7.1 billion — 30 percent above its estimated market value — it was the largest-ever Chinese buyout of an American company.
Smithfield is now part of a public-private tissue engineering consortium, along with pharmaceutical and other health care companies, that’s being funded via an $80 million U.S. Department of Defense grant.3
The move isn’t surprising. Reuters reported that “materials” from 16 million Smithfield pigs, including pancreases, intestinal membrane and thyroid glands, are sent for medical uses every year. […]
I once bought a smithfield pork loin from Hell Mart in my college years. Took it home. Got it out two days later to cook. Before opening the package I noticed there was a large metal spring encased in the package. Have not bought anything from them since. The China buyout is even worse.