Sentient Media has investigated the pollution caused by Iowa’s largest pig slaughtering facility, Seaboard Triumph Foods LLC, in Sioux City, which, on the 7th of March 2025, was fined $7,000 for 1,920 hours of air quality violations after repeated releases of sulphur dioxide and hazardous gases into the community air. The investigation suggests that this is so negligible compared to the company’s vast revenue, made from killing and exporting the bodies of around 20,000 to 22,300 pigs every single day, that it may be much more profitable to be non-compliant with regulations.
This latest fine comes after years of environmental and labour breaches. The company, formed in 2015 as a joint venture between Triumph Foods and Seaboard Foods, markets the use of anaerobic digesters, purportedly to “harvest” biomethane, while simply creating volatile by-products, such as hydrogen sulphide, which, when burned, transforms into toxic sulphur dioxide. According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the plant continually failed to install required gas meters and maintain essential emission records, and routinely exceeded its permitted limits.
Workers have long suffered the consequences. Steven Barrows, who worked at the facility for five years, said to Sentient Media, “I actually got blacklisted to advance my career there because I was considered a troublemaker for making my complaints.” He described indoor air filled with corrosive fumes so potent that, “You could take a copper penny and set it on your desk in your office, and within three days, that copper penny would be black from this stuff that’s in the air.” Despite constant alarm readings for dangerous H2S gas, management told him, “As long as we have a plan in place, they can’t do anything. It doesn’t matter when it gets done. As long as we have a plan in place.”
Dr Silvia Secchi, Professor at the University of Iowa School of Earth and Environment, explained the calculated neglect from the exploiters, saying, “They were putting off doing what needed to be done for as long as possible, basically to keep making as much money as possible … The cost of the fine is so low that it is much more profitable to be non-compliant.” Discussing the waste and bodies evident throughout the facility, Secchi commented, “This is the tail end of a whole system that is extraordinarily dysfunctional.”
