Smithfield Foods to Fund Iowa Grants

November 22, 2006 — 

As a result of an agreement with the Iowa Attorney General's Office, Smithfield Foods will pay $100,000 per year for the next 10 years to fund a program that would advance and enhance swine production in Iowa.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has issued a Request for Applications (RFA) to identify and support innovative Iowa projects eligible for the grants. The proposals will be evaluated by the Attorney General's Office, in collaboration with Smithfield Foods, Inc., and two Democratic and two Republican legislators. Proposals are due by December 1, 2006 and the first $100,000 grant will be awarded before the end of this year.

According to Miller, the program arose out of an agreement "under which Smithfield made substantial financial commitments to Iowa's pork industry and agreed to provide their contract producers with a 'contractor growers' bill of rights." In addition to the $1,000,000 grant program, Smithfield agreed in the 2002 settlement to pay $1,000,000 to Iowa State University for a 10-year environmental training program, and $240,000 over a four-year period to fund Smithfield-Luter Scholarships at ISU.

Source:
Iowa Attorney General's Office