China has purchased "Smithfield Foods" The World's largest food company in the U.S.A. China Owns "US" Now

By DAVID KESMODEL, JULIE JARGON and LAURIE BURKITT

Behind the planned takeover of Smithfield Foods Inc. SFD +0.61% by China's biggest meat processor is an intensifying push by the Asian nation to industrialize its archaic food-production system to address rampant health problems and feed an increasingly wealthy population.

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Workers on a Shuanghui pork processing plant in China, shown in 2011.

In addition to Smithfield's enormous distribution network and market share in the U.S., owning the American company would enable Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. to borrow from Smithfield's playbook to speed the development of hog farms and processing plants in China that mirror the U.S. system.