Seventeen groups have joined forces to oppose a deal that would see Smithfield Foods acquired by a Chinese conglomerate. The group alleges the proposed deal threatens food safety and has sent a letter to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States asking it to oppose the acquisition. One of the letter-writers, Tim Gibbons of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, said,
"The Smithfield purchase turns over American farms to a consolidated, globalized meatpacking industry that leaves rural communities to clean up the waste while China gets the meat."