The aim of Knowmore.org is to raise awareness of corporate abuse, and to serve as a catalyst for direct action against corporate power.

Ethical Consumerism is an important movement toward corporate reform, through which individuals recognize their own role in systems of oppression, and take personal steps toward resistance and  positive change.

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[edit] Criticisms

• In April 2003 shareholders of Smithfield Foods filed a resolution asking the company to disclose more information about its social and environmental policies using standards set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). "An unattractive track record of labor relations problems and a poor environmental record has led us to file a shareholder resolution with Smithfield Foods," said a spokeswoman from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, one of the filers of the resolution.

Among some of the incidences cited for the resolution are:

• fine of $10,000 in August 2002 by North Carolina officials after the company admitted to buying swine from a prohibited farm five times in 2001.
• A 2002 lawsuit that accused the company of violating environmental regulations by mishandling its hog waste. (The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge in July 2002)
• A lawsuit filed in October 2002 by a former saleswoman of Smithfield claiming the company illegally forced her to take a lie detector test after she filed a sexual harassment complaint. During that same month, an Iowa federal jury had ordered another Smithfield Foods subsidiary, John Morrell and Co., to pay an ex-employee 1.5 million dollars in a sexual harassment suit.

Source: AFX News, April 2, 2003

• In March 2002 Smithfield was fined $755,000 for violating federal civil rights laws. A jury found the company guilty of violating the rights of two union organizers during an organization drive at the company's plant in Tar Heel, N.C., in 1997. The workers were beaten, arrested and jailed by company security officers. Source: Feedstuffs, March 11, 2002

• In June 2002 a supervisor for Smithfield Food admitted before a Senate Committee that in 1997 she fired Smithfield employees who were trying to organize a union. In her testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee Sherri Buffkin told the panel, "Smithfield Foods ordered me to fire employees who supported the union, telling me it was either my job or theirs." Buffkin also claimed that the company promoted racial tension to separate workers, testifying that, "Smithfield keeps Black and Latino employees virtually separated in the plant with the Black workers on the kill floor and the Latinos in the cut and conversion departments. The word was that black workers were going to be replaced with Latino workers because blacks were more favorable toward unions." Source: PR Newswire, June 21, 2002

• In February 2005 Human Rights Watch released a report that was the result of a year-long research into operations at three separate processing plants operated by Smithfield Foods plant , Tysons Foods and Nebraska Beef company. The report says workers at the plants are frequently injured, then refused medical care or fired. The report also alleges that repetitive motion injuries are universal in the industry, unsanitary conditions sometimes leave employees covered in animal wastes, and that worker attempts to unionize are sometimes violently quashed. Source: Virginian-Pilot, Feb. 18, 2005

[edit] Brands and Subsidiaries

• Smithfield, Butterball, Farmland, John Morrell, Armour, Cook's, Cumberland Gap, Curly's, Eckrich, Patrick Cudahy
• Aoste, Smithfield Hams, Big 8's, Campofrio, Carando, Carolina, Cochonou, Noul Comtim, Del Mare
• Dinner Bell, Ember Farms, Esskay, Farmstead, Gwaltney
• Stefano[1]