POET leader: Prison won't bring odor, aesthetic drag that pork plant would have

'We support their findings'; ethanol giant that opposed slaughterhouse in 2022 election lauds Project Prison Reset Task Force for transparent process

More than two years after bankrolling a campaign to keep a pork processing plant out of northwest Sioux Falls, POET says it’s fine with a new state penitentiary going up in the same industrial neighborhood.

And that’s because, in the company’s view, a prison is vastly different in nature from a slaughterhouse.

POET Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Joshua Shields told The Dakota Scout this week that the biofuels giant’s opposition to Wholestone Farms’ proposed pork plant in 2022 was driven by odor, visual impact and a lack of public input — factors he says the prison site recommended last week by the state’s Project Prison Reset Task Force leaders doesn’t have.

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