The plant’s Virginia-based owner announced Friday that the facility would close in early 2023, citing the rising costs of doing business in California. Parent company Smithfield Foods is also…
VERNON — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn is promising to assist displaced workers at the Farmer John slaughterhouse in Vernon after the plant closes next year, while animal rights activists are vowing to continue holding regular vigils for the thousand of pigs trucked into the facility to be killed for food.
Company officials said they are providing “transition assistance” to employees at the plant, including “relocation options” to other Smithfield facilities and farms. “Despite a strong, mutually beneficial relationship with Farmer John employees and their union, Smithfield has decided to exit operations in California,” Grant said in a statement. “A fair agreement that compensates their workers until next year has been reached, and we hope that another operator will take advantage of the highly trained and stable workforce that makes the Farmer John plant a productive and profitable part of Vernon’s packing infrastructure.
The activists also said they spoke with Jim Monroe, vice president of corporate affairs at Smithfield, and requested that Smithfield expand its plant-based meat line, Pure Farmland, or even shift to a plant-based business model, which they said “will save millions of pigs’ lives, be healthier for their consumers, safer for those living in close proximity to their slaughterhouses, and be sustainable for our environment overall.