by Ben Wheeler, Greengrants Intern
Notorious for polluting waters in the United States, pork producer Smithfield Foods has taken its show to Poland where lax regulation allows its standards to reach new lows. Waste from hog farms is creating serious water pollution and public health problems. The grassroots group, Green Federation Gaja, is working to prevent Poland from becoming Europe’s pig sty, and a 2004 grant from Global Greengrants Fund is supporting this effort.
Smithfieldís takeover of Poland’s largest pork producer was supported by a $100 million loan in 2001 from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and its partners. Industrial feedlot facilities have moved into Eastern Europe to supply Western Europe with low cost meat while exploiting lax environmental standards and low wages. This investment greatly increased pork production in the already well-developed Polish pork industry, eventually leading to massive overproduction of pork and the bankruptcy of many independent pork farmers. Smithfield has since purchased many of these smaller farms and now enjoys considerable control of Polish pork production.
Smithfield has a lousy environmental record. In 1998 alone, Smithfield was fined more than $12 million for 6900 violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act regulations in Virginia. The company also has been cited for numerous violations of Polandís fairly loose environmental laws, including repeatedly failing to apply for waste storage permits and consistently refusing to treat the dangerous waste produced by thousands of hogs held in close quarters.
Green Federation Gaja has used a variety of tactics to pressure Smithfield, its financial backers, and government regulators. When EBRD claimed to be ignorant of Smithfieldís environmental record, the organization collected evidence, including documents detailing illegal practices of local subsidiaries. The group also is funding a report by an independent analyst for submission to the Polish government about the economic and social impact of Smithfieldís operations and potential legal and policy solutions.
The organization has worked with EBRD to ensure that future loans are not used for similar purposes. The EBRD now is applying pressure on Smithfield to submit to independent inspections of its facilities and to comply with the Polish environmental laws. Green Federation Gaja is exploring additional legal measures to force compliance through Polandís courts. Green Federation Gaja also is working to raise public awareness through protests at stores where Smithfield products are sold. It has developed a short film and a brochure on the social, environmental and legal consequences of further expansion and consolidation of Polandís pork industry.
Green Federation Gaja has had an impact on a wide range of environmental issues in Poland. It played an important role leading protests during a 2002 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Warsaw. Its efforts provided counterbalance to the pro-nuclear focus of the meeting and helped increase public awareness of plans to expand the nuclear industry. The meeting permitted scarce representation from environmental organizations, but Green Gaja Federationís ability to gain media attention outside the conference helped foster ongoing discussion about Polandís energy future.
Much of the impetus and funding behind nuclear expansion plans and other industrial development in Poland comes from international financial institutions eager to extend their financing into Central and Eastern Europe. Green Federation Gaja plays an important watchdog role over lending activities, with a special focus on the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB controls a larger loan portfolio than its better-known counterpart, the World Bank, and is beginning to offer many loans to Eastern European nations. It is a relatively low-profile newcomer to international lending. While decades of criticism have forced institutions like the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation to implement at least some transparency reforms and progressive lending practices, the EIB enjoys nearly complete independence from such constraints.
Green Federation Gaja has joined a growing network of environmental and social justice groups across Europe staging protests at the EIBís headquarters in Luxembourg and throughout Europe. In response to protests at its annual meeting in 2003, EIB promised more citizen input in future loan decisions, but continued pressure from the citizen sector is essential to continued improvements in bank transparency and responsiveness.
Green Federation Gaja also has worked to build cross-border ties with environmental organizations in Belarus to help protect Europe’s last primeval lowland forest, which straddles the Polish-Belorussian border at Bialowieska. Illegal logging and poor forestry management by the two governments have put the forest at risk. When Green Federation Gaja discovered that stands of old oaks were being cut down illegally, it informed the media and helped publicize the problem. Green Federation Gaja and its Belorussian counterparts are now working with local law enforcement to monitor logging in the forest and to hold local forest managers accountable for their policies.
As Poland continues to make the transition from communism to participatory democracy, groups like Green Federation Gaja can play a key role in building a vibrant, functioning civil society. With relatively small infusions of funding, grassroots groups throughout Central and Eastern Europe have begun to have an increasingly promising influence on their societies and governments.