A company in Grafton will pay up to $250,000 for violating state environmental laws, in part by emitting “rancid” odors that affected residents more than four miles away, Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office announced Wednesday.

FeedBack Earth Inc., a for-profit food-waste recycling company, was accused of violating the Massachusetts Clean Air Act and the Massachusetts Solid Waste Disposal Act, according to Campbell’s office.

In 2021, a “rotten” smell that came from the company’s Grafton facility prompted residents to call the police, according to NBC Boston.

FeedBack Earth’s CEO Alison Greenlee, however, claimed the odor had come from tofu it was processing.

“What we found out over the last couple of weeks is that some of our food products smell a little bit more than others, and particularly the tofu was a little smellier than what we were expecting,” Greenlee told the news station in 2021.

The company was turning food waste into animal feed, resulting in the smell, according to NBC Boston.

However, Campbell’s office said Wednesday that the odors were caused in part by environmental permit violations and unsanitary conditions at the company’s facility. The odor was so strong it affected Grafton residents as far as 4.4 miles away from the facility, according to the attorney general.

In a lawsuit last year, the attorney general also accused the company of using unauthorized machinery and processing unapproved feedstocks — raw materials used to make other products.

An October 2024 preliminary injunction requested by the attorney general’s office halted many of FeedBack Earth Inc.’s operations at the facility.

The company has since ceased operations at the facility, according to Campbell’s office.

“Clean air is a fundamental right and today, the residents in Grafton can breathe a little easier,” Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bonnie Heiple said.

As part of the settlement, the company will pay up to $250,000 in penalties to the state. Of the settlement funds, $110,000 will be given to the Massachusetts Environmental Justice Fund, according to Campbell’s office. The fund supports projects that tackle economic, environmental or health-related harms in Massachusetts communities, according to the fund’s website.

“Communities should not have to suffer the consequences of businesses prioritizing profits over compliance with our reasonable environmental laws and regulations,” Campbell said in the press release. “This settlement holds FeedBack Earth accountable for harming our residents and puts other companies on notice that we will not tolerate business practices that threaten people’s right to breathe fresh air.”

Catherine D’Amato is president and CEO of The Greater Boston Food Bank.

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently threatened to withhold funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to states — including Massachusetts — that are not providing the federal government with data about the food program’s recipients. Meanwhile, new SNAP eligibility and work requirements, passed as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, have gone into effect. These wide-ranging new rules require even more Americans who were previously exempt, like veterans, teens, and older Americans, to work or volunteer 20 hours per week to qualify for food assistance as well as jump through bureaucratic hoops to keep their benefits.

For The Greater Boston Food Bank and our anti-hunger partners across the state, this one-two punch presents serious new challenges in our mission to end hunger. Federal food assistance programs are under unrelenting attack. And hunger is about to get worse.

For years, food insecurity has been on the rise in Massachusetts. Even before the federal government shut down and new requirements took effect, 1 in 3 Massachusetts residents struggled to afford enough food.

These are not abstract numbers. These are our neighbors, parents, caregivers, veterans, seniors, children, and full-time workers. Too many are forced to choose between buying food and paying rent, heating bills, or medical expenses.

Those experiencing food insecurity are often hiding in plain sight. Among food insecure individuals that do not report being disabled or retired, 82 percent are working households — meaning that one or more people in the house are working, according to the food bank’s most recent Food Access Study.

SNAP is the nation’s strongest defense against hunger, providing assistance in fiscal 2024 for nearly 42 million people on average per month. For every meal provided by the emergency food system in America, SNAP provides nine more meals. It is simply impossible — for both financial and logistical reasons — for the emergency food network to absorb major cuts to this program. Yet that is exactly what we are facing.

In Massachusetts, the new federal eligibility and work requirements will cause up to 160,000 veterans, caregivers, former foster youth, older adults, and legal immigrants to lose SNAP benefits or see them significantly reduced over the next year. That represents an additional 15 percent of our neighbors across the Commonwealth losing their benefits.

These changes will roll out gradually as recipients complete their annual recertification, meaning the impact will build month after month — driving more and more people to local food pantries for help. And the new SNAP restrictions won’t happen in isolation; people will also feel pinched as Affordable Care Act health care subsidies expire and new Medicaid cuts take effect.

Addressing this urgent societal issue and the immense gaps that will be left in the wake of the SNAP cuts requires action — both collective and individual.

The Healey administration has continued the state’s strong commitment to addressing food insecurity. Its anti-hunger task force will soon offer recommendations on how to mitigate the impacts of SNAP cuts. It is critical that the Commonwealth increases its investment in the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program, which allows the state’s food banks to purchase and supply healthy food to local pantries.

Individually, every one of us can help by volunteering, advocating for policies that strengthen the state’s social security network, or donating to hunger-relief organizations. Join the mission to end hunger.