From Farm to Fork: Tracing the Origins of Swift Premium Pork

1915–81: Swift & Company Grows into Industry Giant

During this time, Swift’s business grew into one of the largest meatpacking companies in the country, with locations all over the country. By 1900, it had also reached beyond national boundaries, opening shops in London, England. At home, Swift and others worked to make Chicago what poet Carl Sandburg called “Hog-butcher to the World,” or the biggest place in the world to kill animals and process meat.

Modernization was one key to the company’s success. For example, in 1915 Swift implemented a “safety first” campaign, reducing plant-level industrial accidents by 50 percent. By that time, the company had also built up successful side businesses. In 1920, it had to get rid of some of these businesses because of a consent decree, but it still sold meat and byproducts at company-owned stores all over the country. Swift had also diversified, branching out from beef to other meats, notably pork. Swift had a lot of different products, like hams, sausages, bacon, chickens, eggs, butter, lard, shortening, oleomargarine, bouillon cubes, and different kinds of soaps, even scented toilet soaps, according to its own company yearbook from 1915. Even though the company had to sell some of its side businesses because of the law, it still made more than $1 million in 1920. It had branch stores that sold fresh, cured, and smoked meats, meat specialties, poultry, eggs, butter, cheese, oleomargarine, lard, shortening, cooking and salad oils, and soaps by 1922.

In 1921, the Union Stockyards in Chicago had more than 40,000 workers and took up more than a square mile of the city’s south side. By 1926, Swift’s rail carriers had grown to include more than 5,000 refrigerator cars. That was pretty much the peak of the industry’s growth in Chicago. During the Great Depression, it began a slow but steady decline. In 1931, when the Depression was at its worst, Swift sold fresh meats under the Select, Premium, and other Swift labels to people who were becoming more brand-conscious.

The Union Stockyards remained one of the nation’s great success stories. From 1893 to 1933, more than 15 million head of livestock were unloaded and processed there every year. In two years in the 1920s, more than 18 million head were processed. But during this time, the industry was also known for having terrible working conditions, as shown in the Upton Sinclair book The Jungle.

Throughout the ups and downs of the Union Stockyards, Swift The company opened a meat packing plant there in 1902, next to an Armour & Co. plant that opened in that same year. The Swift is on 14 acres of land. When both plants were running at full capacity, the Swift and Armour plants could handle up to five million cattle each year. In 1971, Swift shut down its operation there, as it did with many of its other plants over time. This was done in part to get out of the beef business for a while and in part so the meat industry wouldn’t have to rely on railroads to ship its goods. Of course, by that time, it had already opened big plants in other places, like a big one in Grand Island, Nebraska, in 1965.

In the middle of the century, Swift was a very large business, much bigger than what it would become as a ConAgra subsidiary by the end of the century. Swift had 4,500 employees in 2002, when it was still a ConAgra Foods subsidiary. This was a big number, but not as big as it was when the meat packing industry was booming. In 1944, as the end of World War II was getting close, the company could brag that 20,300 Swift employees were serving in the military or other civil service jobs. Many of Swift’s workers joined the military during the war, but the plants kept running at full capacity because of the need to meet wartime demands. In 1943, the company’s sales volume reached $1. 4 billion.

Swift has been around for over 150 years. The Swift & Company tradition began with Mr. Gustavus Swift when he purchased a calf for $20. 00 and sold the meat to his neighbors. Mr. Swift’s innovative thinking was only the beginning. Today, Swift & Company is an industry leader in fresh ideas, products and technology. From our main office in Greeley, Colorado, we’re proud to offer you high-quality items under the Swift and Swift brands. We will continue to work hard to meet your needs by creating and offering fresh beef and pork products that are easy to use and taste great.

1855–1914: From Cape Cod Butcher to Chicago Meat Packer

Swift Before that, he worked as a butcher in his brother’s business. But he had bigger plans for himself and wanted to see how they would work out in New York City. In order to keep Gustavus at home, his father made a deal with the boy: he would buy him his own steer if the young businessman would stay on Cape Cod. His father put up $20, and Gustavus was in business. He bought a mature heifer, butchered it, and packaged it for sale to his neighbors.

Before 1875, Swift lived in the East. That year, he moved to Chicago and worked as a cattle dealer and butcher. There, he set up his business for the first time and bought a shed-like building to hold his slaughterhouse. On the first day in the new facility, his fledgling company slaughtered 32 head of cattle. However, part of his plan was to ship live beef to the eastern states via the railroad. When Swift moved to Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska “cow towns” on the western trail were doing very well. Large groups of longhorn steers that were born in Texas and ate grass on the northern plains were rounded up at these points and driven to Chicago’s Union Stockyards so they could be shipped by rail. From the Windy City, yet to be butchered, they were shipped to the East.

The Union Stockyards were built in 1865 by a group of investors, some of whom were friends of Abraham Lincoln. By the time Swift moved to Chicago, they were processing more than two million animals. By 1890, there were nine million people living there, and the city had been turned into the country’s biggest pig and beef holding pen. It was still a bad system that hurt the interests of cattlemen that live cattle were shipped from the stockyard. For one thing, the live cattle lost up to 15 percent of their weight in transit. Also, the rail service was terrible, and the cattle were often mistreated because they weren’t given enough food or water. Some cattle arrived in bad health because the railcar brakes were not very good, the rails and roadbeds were not in good shape, and there were a lot of stops. As a result, cattle often only sold for low prices in the East, where beef from the West took a while to become popular.

Swift and a few others helped change the system by killing pigs and beef in Chicago and packing the meat that was then shipped to places in the East. The cold winter months were when most meat processing took place, though, for the rest of the century. The industry didn’t have a good way to get fresh meat to a lot of different markets, and there was also no way to keep the meat from going bad. This seasonal limit made Swift angry, so he tried to convince the railroads to make refrigerator cars for moving meat and dairy, but they refused. After all, they had a lot to gain from shipping live cattle, like a lot of stock cars and a lot of money from selling them.

Swift finally got permission to use cars on a railroad that let them go on a roundabout route, even though railroad officials were very against it. Swift bought ten cars and started shipping packaged beef to eastern markets. Soon, he started making his own refrigerator cars and got patents for them. These were the first cars that his company owned.

Swift Premium Pork

FAQ

Where is Swift Premium pork processed?

Where did Swift pork originate?

Is Swift meat grass-fed?

Is Swift meat halal?

When did Swift transition into a food company?

Swift’s transition into a food company began in 1970, when Swift’s ProTen tender beef became the largest dollar sales, branded food item in the world. In the preceding years, Swift’s Brown ‘N Serve sausage products entered the marketplace (1953), and the Swift beef plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, was finished (1965). Swift was restyled as the Swift Independent Packing Company (SIPCO) in 1982.

Who founded Swift & Company?

Swift & Company was founded by Mr. Gustavus Swift. He purchased a calf for $20.00 and sold the meat to his neighbors. Mr. Swift’s innovative thinking was only the beginning. Today, Swift & Company is an industry leader in fresh ideas, products, and technology.

Where was the Swift & Company plant located?

The Swift & Company plant was situated on 14 acres and adjacent to tracks of the Fort Worth Western Railroad. In their heyday, the Swift and Armour plants processed up to five million head of cattle per year between them.

What happened to Swift beef?

Swift’s ProTen tender beef becomes the largest dollar sales, branded food item in the world in 1970. In 1982, Swift is restyled as the Swift Independent Packing Company (SIPCO). In 1989, ConAgra acquires Swift and merges it with Monfort Inc. to form the Monfort Pork Division in Greeley, Colorado.