World's Largest Pork Producer introducing line of Vegan Meats

​www.livekindly.com/smithfield-foods-vegan-meat/

Smithfield Foods is introducing a line of plant based meats including grounds, burgers, meatballs, and vegan cheese stuffed patties. They claim they've been working on this line for a while to perfect it prior to introducing it. In their statement, they claim that their commitment to sustainability and an understanding of the flexitarian consumer brought upon this line of products.

While this is great news for vegan consumers and also great news if you consider that this meat based company is recognizing that plant based diets are the wave of the future, one must also recognize the source of these products. I recently reported on Smithfield Foods if you guys remember and their being exposed for abhorrent cruelty to pigs and piglets. If you remember, they were found to be in continued use of gestation crates despite publicly stating they were working away from them. This, along with piglets with serious, untreated infections and injuries sustained from abuse were discovered. 

This begs the question here from an ethical standpoint I think, can we support a company who is claiming they are thoughtful of sustainability and quality while also realizing that they simultaneously abuse millions of pigs and piglets? It's an interesting situation when you consider all sides of this. While it's wonderful that more and more companies are releasing plant based meats and foods, it's simply a shady attempt at diverting attention away from the real horrors of their business while capitalizing on a growing market. Do they honestly care about sustainability? 

With companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat products that are grown from a vegan beginning, why would we throw our support behind a company that tortures animals every single day? One would argue that if we don't, these companies won't realize how important it is to continue to move away from meat production in favour of vegan products but do you honestly believe the world's largest producer of pork will suddenly cease animal production and start solely relying on plant based meats? I'm extremely skeptical.

What do you guys think? Where do we draw the line on supporting companies in their attempts at joining the plant based movement?

HAPPY VEG