China bought America's biggest pork company in 2013 and now controls one in four American pigs.
House Republicans just voted to give that Chinese-owned giant its biggest legislative win in years.
The provision buried inside the Farm Bill hands Beijing's lobbyists exactly what they have chased for a decade.
Smithfield Foods Is China Owned and Controls Your Pork Supply
Smithfield Foods carries a Virginia address and an American brand.
The checks go to Beijing.
WH Group – the Chinese conglomerate that owns Smithfield – purchased the company for $4.7 billion in 2013, the largest Chinese takeover of an American company on record.
The Bank of China financed the deal as part of an explicit government strategy to expand Chinese corporate reach into American markets.
Chinese investors tied to that acquisition hold hundreds of thousands of acres of American agricultural land.
Trump's USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins stood before cameras in July 2025 and announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, pledging the administration would work to "claw back" Smithfield's American farmland.
An executive order was coming, she said.
Then House Republicans voted to hand Smithfield a legislative gift.
The Save Our Bacon Act Buried Inside the 2026 Farm Bill
The House passed its 2026 Farm Bill on April 30.
Tucked inside was a provision called the Save Our Bacon Act – or the SOB Act, which fits.
The SOB Act would strip states of the power to set farming standards for pork sold within their borders.
It specifically targets California's Proposition 12, which 63 percent of voters approved, and Massachusetts Question 3, which 78 percent of voters passed.
The Supreme Court upheld Prop 12 in 2023.
The National Pork Producers Council – the Washington lobby driving the SOB Act – counts Chinese-owned Smithfield's largest suppliers among its core membership.
Chinese state media declared an earlier version of this provision would greatly increase China's share of the U.S. pork market – and meant it as a victory lap.
The SOB Act eliminates the premium market where independent American family farms can outcompete Smithfield.
American farmers poured money into barn upgrades to qualify for California's market.
Those investments would be worthless overnight.
Since 1990, the number of American hog farms has fallen more than 70 percent, swallowed up by industrial operations with Smithfield at the top.
The SOB Act protects that consolidation – and the Chinese conglomerate that profits from it.
Independent family farmers drove tractors to Capitol Hill to protest the bill, opposing their own lobby's top legislative priority.
The American Meat Producers Association, a coalition of independent producers, launched a $30 million campaign against the provision, calling it "a poison pill" for American farm families.
Senate Farm Bill Strips Out the Save Our Bacon Act
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman released the Senate's Farm Bill draft on June 23 – and the SOB Act was not in it.
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, a co-sponsor of the Senate version, withdrew his support the same month.
Boozman said his draft "reflects the input and priorities of Republicans, Democrats, and most importantly, rural America."
The National Pork Producers Council is still lobbying to restore the provision in the final bill.
The House and Senate must reconcile their differences before anything reaches Trump's desk – and that fight is far from over.
China Farmland and American Food Security Are on the Line
Trump's USDA declared Smithfield a national security threat and put the government on record against Chinese control of American agriculture.
House Republicans turned around and voted to hand Smithfield's Chinese parent company a federal law eliminating every state's power to set food safety standards – erasing voter-approved protections that courts already upheld.
Beijing could not have written a better bill.
Boozman held the line – and right now his Farm Bill draft is the only thing standing between American family farmers and a Chinese legislative victory.
Those same state standards also guard against the disease outbreaks that thrive inside the crowded industrial confinement Smithfield runs – the kind of operations that would spread across American soil if this provision becomes law.
Every senator now faces a straightforward choice: stand with American farmers, American voters, and American sovereignty – or take the National Pork Producers Council's money and hand China another win.
American pork should stay in American hands.
Sources:
- Kimberly Fletcher, "Save Our Bacon? This Bill Sells It to China," Washington Examiner, July 2026.
- "Is Smithfield Foods Owned by China?" Fox Business, May 2020.
- USDA National Farm Security Action Plan, U.S. Department of Agriculture, July 2025.
- H.R. 7567, Farm Food and National Security Act of 2026, U.S. House of Representatives, April 30, 2026.