Several Republicans funded by China’s U.S. pork division are pushing a dangerous Farm Bill provision that could help the Chinese Communist Party tighten its grip on our food supply by overturning voter-approved farm animal laws to benefit China-owned Smithfield Foods.
Rep. Ashley Hinson and Sen. Joni Ernst are trying to add their China-backed “Save Our Bacon Act” (SOB) or some version of it, to the 2026 Farm Bill to nullify existing voter-approved U.S. state laws preventing the most extreme confinement and abuse of pigs and other farm animals and to prohibit states from passing new similar laws.
Guess who really loves their idea of undermining U.S. voters, the U.S. Supreme Court (which upheld the laws), and negating state laws in order to allow the most extreme confinement and abuse of farm animals to continue? China, which owns the largest pork processor operating on U.S. soil.
China-owned Smithfield and its U.S. lobbying group, the National Pork Producers Council, have been aggressively pushing for Hinson and Ernst’s SOB Act, and Federal Election Commission records show that both Ernst and Hinson, along with many other House and Senate Republicans and Democrats, have taken thousands of dollars in campaign donations from these organizations. In 2022, Rep. Dan Newhouse returned campaign funding from Smithfield due to its Chinese ownership. Hinson and Ernst, as of now, have refused to do the same.
Ashley Hinson recently said that concerns about her bill is “Chinese propaganda.”
But the receipts tell a different story.
Smithfield has been controlled by China’s 万洲国际 (WH Group) (formerly Shuanghui Group) since 2013, when they bought the company with a loan from a CCP state bank. WH Group’s leadership is literally stacked with members of the CCP. Its chairman, Wan Long, was also a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army. The Smithfield purchase handed the Chinese company control of valuable American agricultural infrastructure, technology and approximately 146,000 acres of American farmland at the time.
Disclosures filed in August 2026 reveal that China’s CCP-tied pork company Smithfield paid lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, $120,000 to spend April through June of 2026 lobbying on “animal welfare standards; Farm Bill reauthorization; issues related to foreign ownership of agricultural land.”
It was recently revealed that Smithfield’s lobbyist initially failed to disclose that his Farm Bill and SOB Act lobbying benefits China, as required by US law. As Loomered.com first reported, the lobbyist was forced to amend the report to add WH Group (万洲国际) as a “foreign entity” after a federal complaint was filed.
Communist China understands the stakes perfectly. In 2023, the CCP-controlled propaganda outlet China Weekly celebrated Hinson’s bill as a measure that “would significantly increase China’s share of the U.S. pork market if it is successfully passed.”
The translated article titled “The International Outlook Is Positive for China’s Pork Industry” said Hinson’s bill was important to China because: “many US states have different laws regarding pork production, posing multiple challenges to Chinese investors and making it difficult for them to compete with domestic companies. Furthermore, these state laws often favor smaller US farms, disadvantaging multinational corporations and weakening the operational efficiency of Chinese pork companies.”
Republicans cannot claim to put America First while helping a Chinese-controlled conglomerate undermine American voters and farmers.
Last year, when asked about the SOB Act, I told the New York Sun, “Like most people, I eat meat and also support humane animal treatment…I support states’ rights.”
Fortunately, some real America First Republicans have refused to play into Xi Jinping’s hands. In September 2025, 14 House Republicans, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Byron Donalds urged congressional agriculture leaders to reject the SOB Act and related proposals.
They called the measures “sweeping federal overreach” that would trample states’ rights, overturn voters’ decisions, punish farmers who invested in meeting higher standards and expand foreign influence over American food production.
Luna and Donalds also led a similar push against Hinson’s bill in 2024.
Senator Tom Cotton is one of the many members of Congress who have also warned about Smithfield and China’s control over the U.S. food supply, stating: “From purchasing fields and pastures to gobbling up companies like Smithfield, Chinese influence in American agriculture means that China’s needs, not America’s, come first.”
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman has also said, “The Chinese Communist Party clearly wants to supplant our country’s influence and leadership in every area, including agriculture.”
“We must not fall asleep at the switch and give China an opening to exploit,” Boozman said.
Now, he must prove he means it.
Boozman’s Farm Bill is set to be voted on again in the Senate Agriculture Committee on September 15. It failed last month in a 10-11 vote. Hinson and Ernst’s CCP-friendly SOB Act was not included in the bill, but could still be added if American voters don’t call their representatives and demand that it not be included in the Farm Bill.
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