SMITHFIELD, Va. – Murphy-Brown LLC, the livestock production subsidiary for Smithfield Foods Inc., has earned Smithfield’s Zero Hero Award for its environmental management performance in 2011. This included managing more than 450 company-owned farms nationwide without incurring one environmental notice of violation (NOV).

NOVs are issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental agencies issue for violating their environmental rules and regulations, and they direct companies to take appropriate corrective actions.

"We are also recognizing Murphy-Brown for a decade of continuous improvement in environmental management at all of its facilities across the country," said Dennis Treacy, Smithfield's executive vice president and chief sustainability officer. "Murphy-Brown's success clearly demonstrates that responsible companies can promote and achieve social change.”

"Given the complexity of raising hogs today and the sheer number of farms and different manure management activities that we manage on a daily basis, 'zero' NOVs is truly an amazing accomplishment," said Kraig Westerbeek, Murphy-Brown's assistant vice president for environmental compliance and worker safety. "The fact that we were able to achieve this level of compliance underscores the excellence of our environmental management systems."