Big Meat is doing what it does best, making lots of baloney to scare Sioux Falls voters into accepting a second big pig slaughterhouse in city limits. As voters in Sioux Falls consider an ordinance on their November ballot that would prevent Wholestone Farms from building their proposed pork-packing plant on the Big Sioux River in the northeastern part of town, the Pork Producers Council is claiming that saying no to Big Meat will say no to all interested businesses:
Glenn Muller, executive director of the South Dakota Pork Producers Council, said residents need to understand the message a ‘yes’ vote on the ballot measure could send to industry.
“The implications of the initiated measure are extreme because it basically deters anybody from coming to Sioux Falls to develop business,” Muller said [Joshua Haiar, “Industry Support for New Meatpacking Plant That Needs Sioux Falls Approval,” SDPB, 2022.08.17].
There is nothing “extreme” about residents saying they want to manage economic development in their city to ensure balanced, sustainable, economically diverse, and environmentally friendly development. There is nothing extreme about saying, “Gee, we already have one meatpacking plant in town that erodes quality of life and limits other healthy economic development; maybe we should direct any more such projects to build somewhere else.” And there is nothing in saying no to a slaughterhouse that says no to every other industry; to the contrary, saying no to one large smelly project could say yes to lots of other business ventures (like expanding recreation opportunities along the river corridor?).
But Wholestone Farms claims that an electoral rejection of its slaughterhouse would make Sioux Falls and South Dakota look like reneggers:
Wholestone officials say multiple Midwestern states bid for the new development. South Dakota and Sioux Falls officials asked Wholestone to build at a proposed industrial zone in the city [Haiar, 2022.08.17].
Officials asked Wholestone Farms to build in Sioux Falls? Really? Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken didn’t sound like he was one of the askers when Wholestone announced its plan last summer:
“To be frank, we are facing historic housing challenges right now,” Mayor Paul TenHaken said in a statement provided to SiouxFalls.Business.
“In this unique environment, our employers are also facing critical hiring challenges as we have strategically added thousands of new jobs in recent months. Under normal circumstances, the addition of 1,000 more jobs would be an enormous win for the city of Sioux Falls, yet these are not normal circumstances. While I have been and continue to be supportive of value-added agriculture investments in our region, I have a duty to note the challenges currently being faced within our community at this time” [Jodi Schwan, “Pork Producer-Owned Company Plans to Build $500M Sioux Falls Facility,” Sioux Falls Business, 2021.06.14].
And Governor Kristi Noem, who said last summer she doesn’t want any more thieving big meatpackers, emails only this tepid response to the company’s claim of official eagerness:
In a statement, Gov. Kristi Noem said “Lt. Governor Rhoden and I fully support South Dakota value-added agriculture. This is an issue that will be decided at the local level” [Haiar, 2022.08.17].
TenHaken and Noem aren’t talking like people who avidly bid for or buy into Wholestone’s slaughterhouse. And if the chief executives of the city and state concerned didn’t drive that bid, then who did? Or is this claim of top-level support for the project just more baloney from Big Meat?
It’s too bad we can’t trade Smithfield for Wholestone because that stinky meat plant is down by the city’s landmark Falls Park and what is becoming a transformed cosmopolitan downtown. At least the Wholestone plant would be a brand new plant on the outskirts of the city. It would also be American-owned and I thoughtt Wholestone was also a cooperative business, or am I wrong on that one, Cory? If Kristi wants more “value-added agriculture” she needs to look more at attracting farmer cooperative-owned businesses instead of Chinese behemoths like Smithfield.
Wholestone can build it outside of town. Way out.
I too would like to know who thought this would be a wise move. It sounds to me like Kristi is distancing herself. Maybe she was part of the effort to locate them in town.
And if there is better technology today, then Smithfield can do better. They should be forced to do better. They stink.
“This is an issue that will be decided at the local level” – Governor Noem
Once again, she doesn’t know what to say or do so she does nothing and labels it “supporting smaller government”.
What a con artist with limited paints and brushes.
Governor Noem’s Mendacity. I believe that Mendacity is “saying one thing and doing another”, or “artful lying”. She’s really not very good at it. Her public statements are all contrivances to avoid any controversial assignation. Written by her crack staff of highly paid, out of state staff and consultants, her “messaging” is anything but believable.
“The implications of the initiated measure are extreme because it basically deters anybody from coming to Sioux Falls to develop business,” Muller said.
That is really not ever the case with such initiatives. Even Wholestone is saying they will do business there with a smaller profile. If it isn’t deterring them, why would it deter anyone else? When we did a similar local initiative on a hog issue in Pierre in the 1980s, it didn’t discourage businesses from coming to Pierre. In fact many businesses were worried that that hog farm was way too big. If it had been proposed with a smaller footprint, there probably would not have been the opposition to it.
Wasn’t Wholestone going to open a small facility prior to the vote to grandfather itself in?
This has nothing to do with the petitioners being concerned about the air quality in Sioux Falls, because if they were, they would have written the initiative to include closing ALL major packing plants including Smithfields. This was about some rich investors pissed off because they own housing development land next to the WF lot.
There are also many constitutional issues with the initiative that could topple a court challenge.
Do I want another packing plant in SF? No. But this was a crappy attempt of solving the real issue with air quality in SF, SMITHFIELDS!
This is about the greed of a few (both Wholestone and the the investors in the housing) and has little to do with a perceived threat of air/water quality or immigrant workers invading our town. Nothing gets done politically in the local halls of government unless it involves money.
Scott, of course. You are correct. BUT, the people of Sioux Falls have discovered what ” being outdoors” is all about. The Sioux Falls stink is easy to ignore if you are driving from one indoor venue to the next. Roll up the window. In the last couple of decades, Sioux Falls folks have slowly discovered what a joy “outdoors” , as a destination, truly is.
Arlo: “In the last couple of decades, Sioux Falls folks have slowly discovered what a joy “outdoors” , as a destination, truly is. Exactly, Arlo! Downtown Sioux Falls is becoming a major tourist destination for travelers to the city. Along with Falls Park, the entire Downtown is transforming into a regional cosmopolitan center with a river walk on both sides of the river leading to the falls. New hotels, apartments, condos, microbrews, the Leavitt band stage, the Arc of Dreams and other downtown art sculptures, retail shops, the list goes on and on. It’s so nice in Downtown Sioux Falls now, that I take a trip their annually just to go downtown. But, that old Smithfield plant needs to go somewhere else, far away from the transformed downtown. Just like the old Zip Feed Tower came down, so, they could build the first Cherapa Place tower, the Smithfield plant needs to be next on the list of coming down. There is plenty of land outside of the city to build near a major interstate highway. A pork plant no longer fits in with this new Downtown vibe. I would rather have farmer and American-owned Wholestone than Chinese-owned Smithfield. At least Wholestone wanted to build a new one on the outskirts versus the old 19th Century one of Smithfield that no longer belongs Downtown.
I think the mayor and Sioux Falls city council should begin looking into plans on how to move Smithfield out of Downtown. It will involve some studies on where to move, along with applying for some federal grant money to do a brownfield study on how to effectively clean-up the site once the pork plant is demolished. It will take some major environmental clean-up of that area, along with that section of the Big Sioux River. It can be done because it has been done to EPA standards on other former polluted waterways. There are all kinds of grants out there to do this if the city were serious about moving Smithfield, which no longer fits into Downtown.
Sure. Move Smithfield out of town, if it is feasible. But it would be foolish to replace it with another one. It’s not just the stinky plant, it’s all the smelly trucks that deliver those pigs to market. I went by Smithfield on its north side last night. Wow, was that a stink bomb.
It’s a dumb idea to ever locate one in city limits. The measure will pass easily. As it should.
Jim, it will pass, probably well over 70%, but it is moot because of how poorly written it is, it will not survive a court challenge.
Guy, interestingly, there has been a rumor floating around that WF will have foreign investors, not sure if it is Chinese or Korean, but the rumors have been out there. There are many icky body parts of a pig that Americans will NOT eat, but foreigners will.
When Smithfield was telling everyone they needed to stay open during Covid due to the food supply chain it was a ruse. Pork is NOT a super food that people need to survive. In fact soy has almost twice as much protein and 5 times less fat than pork. Most of the pork packaged during Covid at Smithfield had Chinese labeling on it.
WF owns the land AND it is zoned properly. Could the City Council change the zoning laws? Yes, but they are too lazy to do it and at this point WF would be grandfathered in. When Mayor Munson started the redevelopment of DTSF (I do applaud him for his initiative) his predesseors failed to accomplish two major things 1) Closing or moving Smithfields and 2) moving the trains (mostly switchyards) out of DTSF for good.
Scott, yes I remember Mayor Munson and how he helped in the first phase of transforming DTSF, that’s when I lived in Sioux Falls and I was impressed how they cleaned up and brought back business to DTSF from the decaying area it become in the late 1990s. When I lived in Sioux Falls over 15 years ago, the city was just planning for the east bank development we now see and enjoy today, that included removing the old parking garage that was built over and covered up a major section of the Big Sioux River in downtown. If they could remove Smithfields, it would be a major accomplishment to improve what has been a twenty-year event to totally revitalize and transform downtown into what it is today. I would still rather have Mid-West headquartered Welstone than Smithfield. Maybe Sioux Falls can find a way to buy-off and encourage Smithfield to leave all together? Bring in Welstone as the replacement. That seems to be the political movement for farming and ranching today: to break-up the big meat packing conglomerates in order to build smaller, farmer-cooperative owned meat processing facilities throughout the nation. I think that would be the better move for our economy as a whole.
Scott’s correct, just follow the money to unearth the “officials” who supported another stinky, polluting industry with an under-paid workforce in Sioux Falls. It’s the usual suspects; banksters, realtors, “developers”, and planners with financial ties.
Send this project to northwest Iowa were it can be closer to the hog CAFOs.
Scott writes that “it will not survive a court challenge.”
The council may refuse permits and the city’s residents can refuse to allow new businesses that will negatively impact them. How would they challenge this successfully? If Wholestone were confident that the vote results could be challenged, they wouldn’t need to be going ahead with this “grandfathered” mini butcher shop ruse.
I think it could easily be argued that the little butcher shop, if set up in time, is not a “slaughterhouse” but an obvious ploy to flout the will of the people.
Because building a mom and pop butcher shop that will likely be permanent is a heckuva a lot cheaper than a lawsuit. My suspect is they will try this ploy first and if challenged they will go to court.
The council has ZERO authority in stopping permits on land that is privately owned and correctly zoned, this is why you have seen NO action from them. The Mayor and Planning department could stop the permits but they have to give a damn good (legal) reason, and would likely be sued for the refusal.
Because there is an upcoming vote to decide the issue… that should be adequate legal justification… to refuse permits, licenses or inspections until November.
I just read: “Four building permits were filed with the city’s building services department on Aug. 18 for “Wholestone Phase 1 Harvest & Processing Facility,” (Today’s Argus 8/23/22)
I still have not seen who is promoting this and allowing it to proceed. Was the governor involved? The mayor? Who approved these permits? I am sure everyone would like to know. I know I do. Where is our local press on this?
This is an outrageous disregard for the will of the people.
Jim, as I understand it, if you own the property and it is zoned properly, the council does NOT review the permits, they only do re-zones and conditional use permits. As of today, WF can legally pull permits and start construction. What you are saying is that NO one should be able to pull permits before the November election. While it does look shady they are trying to usurp the vote by building this butcher shop, they have done nothing illegal. If the city would refuse those permits at this point, they will be sued and WF would likely win. As I mentioned above, the initiative was poorly written with too many loopholes.
The new Wholestone Farms packing plant would be significantly attractive to Chinese money. Brand new and going broke are two venture capital points of interest when a corporate merger/takeover is hanging in the air like the sweet smell of hog urine.
– Maybe just maybe Wholestone is already in cahoots with China money and is building something that China wouldn’t be allowed to build based on their reputation alone.
I hear what you are saying, Scott. But Wholestone is trying to rush things in a shady way. The city can slow things in a responsible way. They need to start listening to their constituents and put a stop to this.
Was the initiative written poorly. I don’t know. But who could have guessed that these characters would go to this extreme and, it appears, somebody in the city would help them do it.
Legally, the initiative was written clearly. The authors just failed to account for The cash and creativity that Luke Minion could apply to build a protoslaughterhouse that will allow the construction of the full facility to qualify as an “expansion” under the proposed initiative.
I appreciate the argument the petitioners are making, that Minion’s maneuver isn’t just shady but involves an action by the city government, approval of the building permits, that effectively thwarts the as-yet unknown will of the voters. But issuing building permits under current law does not violate a law that does not yet exist. Issuing those permits does not thwart the will voters may express on November 8 when they state whether they want to allow any new slaughterhouses to be built on Sioux Falls after the election.
Not legally, but subjectively by one blogger the initiative was clear, and subjectively by another blogger it was a sloppily written baldergashigslop.
But sausages are good, so let them be made.
After Shape Places was passed (once by the council and once by the voters) it took a lot of power out of the hands of the council and the planning department. If a property is owned free and clear by the permit applicant and no rezones or conditional use permits are needed all an applicant has to do is write a check to the city and they can build their project. This is anything from a hog processing plant to a tool shed. It is really that simple. We could argue all day about the ethics or morality of the topic, but legally, WF is in the clear. I was told by a reporter yesterday that construction has already begun on the butcher shop. What should be frustrating to constituents is that since Sioux Falls city government has been so non-transparent for so long, constituents have NO clear understanding how the zoning laws work, or for that matter the meaning of the 14th and 5th amendments to the US constitution. The mayor, the city council and constituents don’t have the constitutional authority to stop a land owner from building a project that is legally zoned. As I told someone recently, “If you don’t want any more packing plants being built, stop eating meat.”
Are you saying that the city MUST inspect the electrical and plumbing before November? They can’t be operational without passing inspection, right? What do you think?
The city can play their game too, can’t they?