Deen has not responded to the workers' concerns, and her opponents want her to be accountable for her corporate support. They use the example of Kathie Lee Gifford, criticized for using sweatshop labor for her clothes line. She eventually changed her suppliers.

"I want [Deen] to hear the workers out and to hear what they have to say about the working conditions," said Vincent Nash, 40, who has worked at Smithfield for the last two years.

Nash would tell her what it's like to work on "the line" at Smithfield, where more than 25,000 hogs are slaughtered, cut, packed and shipped daily. Nash holds a 12-inch knife and has about five seconds to cut out their two kidneys. Then another hog whizzes by. And the next. He does this over and over again for eight hours a day. He has two 30-minute breaks. By the time he cleans up, takes off his equipment, and walks to the cafeteria he is left with less than 15 minutes to eat or rest his hands. (Many workers there suffer from repetitive motion injuries.) He also says workers are discouraged from taking bathroom breaks because it slows down the line. "The other day I almost peed myself," Nash said.

That's hardly humane. It sounds like something out of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

But this is the reality that many meatpackers across the country endure as documented in the book turned into a film Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

This is a really dangerous job. It can even be a deadly place to work. In 2003, a temp worker at the plant, Glenn Birdsong, 25, suffocated after he was exposed to chemical fumes. His family received a $65,000 settlement from the plant and another company. This is a drop in the bucket when you consider Smithfield's profits and the value of a human life.

A former worker at the plant, Norma Torres, 32, said she was injured when hit by a forklift jack. She said the company sent her home instead of to the hospital. She went to the hospital on her own. Her back was injured and she lost two months of work. While she recuperated, the company paid her $100 a week instead of her $375 usual wages, she said.

"They only care about the production. They don't care about the employees," Torres said.

The conditions at the company have been documented by Human Rights Watch, the National Labor Relations Board and OSHA. They are so notorious that last year the Chicago City Council passed a resolution critical of Smithfield.

"We just want them to treat their workers fairly," said Ald. Ricardo Munoz, who joined the protest against Deen, organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

The workers think that if Deen knew about the harsh reality they face she wouldn't have signed a deal with Smithfield.

How could she be so blind?

Deen is a success story herself. She raised two children after a divorce, and overcame agoraphobia, a disorder where the sufferer becomes anxious in environments that are unfamiliar and seem to offer little control. Despite that, Deen started a lunchtime business delivering sandwiches that blossomed into restaurants, cookbooks and her first Food Network show.

Next time you consider using one of her Smithfield-backed pork chop recipes, you should think about the stories of Nash, Birdsong and Torres.

It's enough to make you lose your appetite.