"The Smell of Money" indicts Smithfield’s inhumane, racist practices

Documentaries have recorded the cruelty to animals of factory farms. The cruelty to those who live in the neighboring areas have not received as much attention, an oversight corrected by Shawn Bannon’s “The Smell of Money.” Focused on the homes in the area adjacent to the Smithfield pig farm in Duplin County, rural North Carolina, the reality is tragic.

In a clear case of environmental racism, Elsie Herring lives next door to Smithfield’s factory on land her previous slave grandfather bought. Indifferent to her and other nearby Black residents, Smithfield’s workers spray hog urine and feces next to their property, the stench awful, the residue coating the area, and, most seriously, the health of all exposed catastrophically affected. The extensive, disastrous impact to the environment is clear with, as the film reports, over a billion fish in the nearby river dying within one ten day period.

Elsie speaks out, her advocacy met with threats, harassment, and intimidation. Later, with several truly heroic residents and lawyers, she spearheads a court battle against Smithfield that drags on for nine years. Corey Booker weighs in, powerfully and accurately stating, “They are poisoning our soil, poisoning our groundwater, poisoning people, fellow Americans. They are stealing from them in the present and stealing from future generations.” This is a clear-cut, tragic story of environmental destruction and inhumane treatment of animals and individuals. Why? When questioned about the horrid odor of sprayed hog urine and feces, an executive brags, “It’s the smell of money,” hence the documentary’s title. Smithfield also calls the manure cesspools lagoons, p.r. for animal waste.

Employing a straightforward documentary approach, the case mounted leads to one conclusion—this practice must be stopped for everyone’s sake, especially the Black residents on the Smithfield plant doorstep. I for one will never be able to look at Smithfield bacon, Nathan’s hot dogs, or any of their brands without this reality uppermost in my mind. “The Smell of Money” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium one night only, Thursday, January 25, at 7:00 p.m. For more information, you may visit the film series website.