A closely-watched court case in North Carolina has environmentalists cheering, but farmers sulking in disappointment with empty pockets. After a less than two-day deliberation, a North Carolina jury awarded 10 neighbors a combined $50 million in damages due to complaints filed from a nearby 15,000-hog farm in the eastern part of the state.
The verdict, decided in Raleigh, is reportedly just the first in a series of lawsuits against the world’s largest producer of pork, Murphy-Brown/Smithfield Foods.
The neighbors contended that the industrial-scale hog farm has known for decades that the open-air sewage pits on their properties were the source of “noxious, sickening and overwhelming odors,” according to the Raleigh-based News & Observer. The neighbors even explained that the smell stemming from the hog farm was so strong that, “it was impossible to get it out of their clothes.”
The suit was filed back in 2014 after years complaints. At that time, a team of lawyers started articulating their argument, focusing on the continued use of “anaerobic lagoons,” which are open pits where hog waste in stored on the farm’s property. The waste is then “liquefied” and sprayed onto neighboring fields as fertilizer.
Families and individuals from neighboring houses argued that the practice presented a public nuisance. Their legal representatives argued that waste treatment methods have evolved in the pork production industry in North Carolina, but it keeps the outdated practices to offset lower operational costs from China.
Smithfield Foods was bought by China’s WH Group in 2013. The company has used the same practices with hog waste and the disposal thereof since the late 1980s.
Mona Lisa Wallace, a local attorney for the neighbors said, “We are pleased with the verdict. These cases are about North Carolina family property rights and a clean environment.”
Foreshadowing the next in a series of lawsuits, with which they have teamed up with two Texas-based firms, she explained, “We are now preparing for the next, which is scheduled for the end of May.”
The defense attorneys for Murphy-Brown/Smithfield Foods and the hog farm operators have cautioned against newer technology that is becoming commonplace in the industry. They claim that some technology has not been tested or even proven to be effective.
Keira Lombardo, senior vice president of corporate affairs for Smithfield Foods said in a statement:
“We are extremely disappointed by the verdict…These lawsuits are an outrageous attack on animal agriculture, rural North Carolina and thousands of independent family farmers who own and operate contract farms. These farmers are apparently not safe from attack even if they fully comply with all federal, state and local laws and regulations.”
She said the company plans to appeal the ruling.
