After CRFB Complaint, Smithfield's Lobbyist Admits Chinese Owner's Interest in Farm Bill Lobbying

After CRFB Complaint, Smithfield's Lobbyist Admits Chinese Owner's Interest in Farm Bill Lobbying

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2026

The Center for Responsible Food Business uncovered how lobbyists for Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods failed to properly disclose foreign interests for years.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a federal complaint filed August 3 by the Center for Responsible Food Business (CRFB) with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House, Smithfield Foods's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, has quietly amended its most recent federal lobbying report to disclose that WH Group (萬洲國際) — the China-based company that owns 86.9% of Smithfield — has an interest in Smithfield's lobbying on the Farm Bill and on foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land.

Greenberg Traurig's original second-quarter report, filed July 20, 2026, answered "None" on Line 19, where federal law requires lobbyists to disclose any foreign entity's interest in the specific issues they lobbied. Those issues included "Farm Bill reauthorization" and "issues related to foreign ownership of agricultural land," and the report covers $120,000 in lobbying directed at the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and the Department of the Treasury.

On August 18, fifteen days after CRFB's complaint, the firm submitted an amended report to name Smithfield's owner — WH Group of Kowloon, Hong Kong — as a foreign entity with an interest in both lobbying areas.

Smithfield's July filing was no isolated lapse; it was the fifteenth consecutive quarterly report since the beginning of 2023 to report lobbying on foreign land ownership legislation for Smithfield while denying that any foreign entity had an interest. Fourteen of the fifteen reports remain uncorrected.

"It should not take a watchdog group's complaint to compel a major global corporation to comply with federal disclosure laws about foreign lobbying interests," said Taylor Warren, President of the Center for Responsible Food Business. "Smithfield's years-long omission and sudden about-face suggest it never intended to admit that its lobbyists really represent China. And why would it? It serves Smithfield to masquerade as an America-first company when pushing for policies that benefit its Chinese owner."

With the corrected filing now on the record, no member of Congress can claim not to know whose interests stand behind Smithfield's money and its lobbying agenda.

Copies of the lobbying filings and CRFB's complaint are available on request.

Media Contact
Taylor Warren: media@responsiblefoodbusiness.org

About the Center for Responsible Food Business
The Center for Responsible Food Business is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting corporate social responsibility to build a better food system. Through industry engagement, research, and consumer education efforts, the Center works to advance practices that benefit all stakeholders from the farm to the dinner table.

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SOURCE Center for Responsible Food Business