A nonprofit group consisting of 56 businesses in Sioux Falls, S.D., is trying to place a moratorium on the construction of a $500-million pork processing plant.
Locally-owned Wholestone Farms, based in Fremont, Neb., says the plant’s design and odor will not be a hazard to the area’s quality of life.
A letter from the nonprofit group, Citizens for a Sustainable Sioux Falls, said the proposal by Wholestone Farms includes the capacity to process up to 6 million hogs each year at a 170-acre industrial complex near residential neighborhoods and businesses, and discharging wastewater into the Big Sioux River.
The project is important to local agriculture, Wholestone Farms says, with its pig supply mostly coming from farmers that live within 75 miles of Sioux Falls. Wholestone Farms has invested $45 million in wastewater treatment, and its operations match or exceed the City of Sioux Falls treatment plant, Luke Minion, chairman of the company’s board, told the Associated Press.
Wholestone Farms announced plans last June to build the facility in the city that’s also home to a massive Smithfield Foods pork processing plant. Established in 2018, the company is owned by 200 members who are independent family farmers raising livestock in the upper Midwest. The company has plans to start hiring in 2025 before eventually filling about 2,500 positions.
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