Smithfield Foods currently participates in two partnerships via Murphy-Brown of Missouri LLC (MBM) facilities in Missouri and Milford, Utah. The projects involve anaerobic digesters that will eventually deliver electricity to neighboring communities. MBM is the livestock production subsidiary of Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods.
"Our Missouri and Utah projects are a classic win-win. We will considerably reduce the greenhouse effects on the Earth's atmosphere by recycling agricultural waste, help to protect our natural resources and provide a more environmentally friendly energy source," said C. Larry Pope, president and CEO of Smithfield Foods.
MBM and Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC are developing a $110 million renewable biogas operation in northern Missouri that will harvest biogas from MBM finishing farms using anaerobic digesters. MBM's Circle 4 Farms in Milford and Alpental Energy Partners LLC are using two methane digesters to convert manure into electricity. Smithfield noted that the Milford project is ramping up. In the future, the lagoons at Circle 4 Farms will only be used to store liquid — not solid waste.
"Sustainability has become a way of life at Smithfield Foods," said Dennis H. Treacy, Smithfield's chief sustainability officer. "It's our response to our customers, consumers, investors and other stakeholders who look to us to find innovative and sustainable ways to repurpose waste from our operations."
