Wonder who was there 1st
The farm or the houses.
quote: A federal jury decided Friday that the world's largest pork producer should pay $473.5 million to neighbors of three North Carolina industrial-scale hog farms for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors, flies and rumbling trucks
The jury found that Smithfield Foods owes compensation to six neighbors who complained in their lawsuit that the company failed to stop "the obnoxious, recurrent odors and other causes of nuisance" resulting from closely packed hogs, which "generate many times more sewage than entire towns."
The jury awarded $23.5 million in compensatory damages and $450 million in punitive damages, which will be reduced to a total of $94 million under limits in state law.
The case comes after two previous, related lawsuits rocked agribusiness in the country's No. 2 pork-producing state. Juries in those two cases awarded damages of about $75 million intended to punish Smithfield, though those amounts also were required to be cut.
North Carolina legislators reacted by adopting new barriers against nuisance lawsuits that all but eliminate the ability of neighbors to sue Smithfield Foods or any other agribusiness. Critics billed the legislation as an attack on private property rights in order to protect a well-heeled industry.
U.S. Sen Thom Tillis and U.S. Rep. David Rouzer suggested they might seek national legislation after hearing Friday from agribusiness executives and agriculture officials from North Carolina, Georgia, Delaware and Texas in Raleigh.
"Today's nuisance lawsuits that are destroying livelihoods and communities in North Carolina are the tip of the iceberg for what is to come absent a well-informed public and good public policy," Rouzer said in a prepared statement Thursday. "This is a very slippery slope that threatens the very existence of every form of agriculture nationwide."
a body of water: In this July 21, 2017, file photo, hog waste flows into the waste pond at a hog farm owned by Smithfield Foods in Farmville, N.C.
? Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. In this July 21, 2017, file photo, hog waste flows into the waste pond at a hog farm owned by Smithfield Foods in Farmville, N.C.
Industry group the North Carolina Pork Council decried the jury's decision in a statement warning that it could lead to more lawsuits across the country.
"This verdict will spread from eastern North Carolina to all corners of American agriculture," the group said, calling for an appeal of the decision they described as unfair and unjust.
Environmental advocates said there's good reason pork producers have been getting hit with penalties.
"These juries are repeatedly seeing problems with the kind of waste management that's used," said Cassie Gavin, a lobbyist with the North Carolina Sierra Club. "Clearly it's time for the state and the industry to take a hard look at their waste management and modernize it so the public is protected."
The Pender County, North Carolina, farms at the center of the lawsuit held thousands of hogs owned by a Smithfield Foods subsidiary. Smithfield was sued because plaintiffs' lawyers said the company used strict contracts to dictate how farmers raised Smithfield's animals.
One neighbor who was not part of the suit compared the waste stench to long-dead corpses he found during his career as a police officer and firefighter, news outlets reported. Wesley Sewell testified that he bought his house out of foreclosure without realizing the hog operations were nearby and sometimes fled to another home when the smells were too strong.
Lawyers for the neighbors said Smithfield hasn't taken measures that would minimize the nuisances, for example by sending trucks along a back road to pick up hogs for slaughter in the middle of the night instead of rumbling past sleeping homes. Nor has the company covered the waste pits or otherwise tried to capture the smell and bacteria resulting from pooling liquefied waste, lawyers for the neighbors said. The company has done that in Missouri and Colorado, attorneys said.
The predominant method of handling hog waste in North Carolina is collecting it in open-air pits that are emptied by spraying liquid excrement on farm fields. The method was banned at new livestock operations in 1997, when industrial-scale hog operations began to be planned near the Pinehurst golf resort two years before it would host the U.S. Open tournament.
Smithfield has continued using the low-cost method because it helps the company produce pork for less than in China, lawyers for the neighbors said. Smithfield is owned by Hong Kong-headquartered WH Group, which posted profits of about $1 billion last year.
Seen race tracks, shooting ranges and even some businesses shut down that way here. Folks move in then start complaining. But it was there way before their home was built.
Only Track near me that was not shut down the City stepped up and showed that the Homes were built way after the the track. So the track stayed.
quote: A federal jury decided Friday that the world's largest pork producer should pay $473.5 million to neighbors of three North Carolina industrial-scale hog farms for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors, flies and rumbling trucks
The jury found that Smithfield Foods owes compensation to six neighbors who complained in their lawsuit that the company failed to stop "the obnoxious, recurrent odors and other causes of nuisance" resulting from closely packed hogs, which "generate many times more sewage than entire towns."
The jury awarded $23.5 million in compensatory damages and $450 million in punitive damages, which will be reduced to a total of $94 million under limits in state law.
The case comes after two previous, related lawsuits rocked agribusiness in the country's No. 2 pork-producing state. Juries in those two cases awarded damages of about $75 million intended to punish Smithfield, though those amounts also were required to be cut.
North Carolina legislators reacted by adopting new barriers against nuisance lawsuits that all but eliminate the ability of neighbors to sue Smithfield Foods or any other agribusiness. Critics billed the legislation as an attack on private property rights in order to protect a well-heeled industry.
U.S. Sen Thom Tillis and U.S. Rep. David Rouzer suggested they might seek national legislation after hearing Friday from agribusiness executives and agriculture officials from North Carolina, Georgia, Delaware and Texas in Raleigh.
"Today's nuisance lawsuits that are destroying livelihoods and communities in North Carolina are the tip of the iceberg for what is to come absent a well-informed public and good public policy," Rouzer said in a prepared statement Thursday. "This is a very slippery slope that threatens the very existence of every form of agriculture nationwide."
a body of water: In this July 21, 2017, file photo, hog waste flows into the waste pond at a hog farm owned by Smithfield Foods in Farmville, N.C.
? Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. In this July 21, 2017, file photo, hog waste flows into the waste pond at a hog farm owned by Smithfield Foods in Farmville, N.C.
Industry group the North Carolina Pork Council decried the jury's decision in a statement warning that it could lead to more lawsuits across the country.
"This verdict will spread from eastern North Carolina to all corners of American agriculture," the group said, calling for an appeal of the decision they described as unfair and unjust.
Environmental advocates said there's good reason pork producers have been getting hit with penalties.
"These juries are repeatedly seeing problems with the kind of waste management that's used," said Cassie Gavin, a lobbyist with the North Carolina Sierra Club. "Clearly it's time for the state and the industry to take a hard look at their waste management and modernize it so the public is protected."
The Pender County, North Carolina, farms at the center of the lawsuit held thousands of hogs owned by a Smithfield Foods subsidiary. Smithfield was sued because plaintiffs' lawyers said the company used strict contracts to dictate how farmers raised Smithfield's animals.
One neighbor who was not part of the suit compared the waste stench to long-dead corpses he found during his career as a police officer and firefighter, news outlets reported. Wesley Sewell testified that he bought his house out of foreclosure without realizing the hog operations were nearby and sometimes fled to another home when the smells were too strong.
Lawyers for the neighbors said Smithfield hasn't taken measures that would minimize the nuisances, for example by sending trucks along a back road to pick up hogs for slaughter in the middle of the night instead of rumbling past sleeping homes. Nor has the company covered the waste pits or otherwise tried to capture the smell and bacteria resulting from pooling liquefied waste, lawyers for the neighbors said. The company has done that in Missouri and Colorado, attorneys said.
The predominant method of handling hog waste in North Carolina is collecting it in open-air pits that are emptied by spraying liquid excrement on farm fields. The method was banned at new livestock operations in 1997, when industrial-scale hog operations began to be planned near the Pinehurst golf resort two years before it would host the U.S. Open tournament.
Smithfield has continued using the low-cost method because it helps the company produce pork for less than in China, lawyers for the neighbors said. Smithfield is owned by Hong Kong-headquartered WH Group, which posted profits of about $1 billion last year.
Seen race tracks, shooting ranges and even some businesses shut down that way here. Folks move in then start complaining. But it was there way before their home was built.
Only Track near me that was not shut down the City stepped up and showed that the Homes were built way after the the track. So the track stayed.
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They built houses next to a hog farm.
That is like complaining about noise when you build next to an airport.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Sam06
They built houses next to a hog farm.
That is like complaining about noise when you build next to an airport.
Main reason the Navy Moved from Miramar to Arizona. Marines now have it and could care less what they think place now has helos coming and going . 53's make a bunch of noise.0 -
The National Guard post in Camp Dodge has a rifle range.
The neighbor's complained about the late night firing.
The solution was to start firing early enough in order to finish before it was too "late".
It is "almost" dark enough to start at 6:00 PM - right?
[:0]0 -
quote:Originally posted by US Military Guy
The National Guard post in Camp Dodge has a rifle range.
The neighbor's complained about the late night firing.
The solution was to start firing early enough in order to finish before it was too "late".
It is "almost" dark enough to start at 6:00 PM - right?
[:0]
In the Winter.0 -
Smithfield was bought out by the Chinese a few years ago. 0 -
most all farms around here have the posted signs in bold letters about smell noise and all that goes with a farm . but I still see countless people trying to build a house or development
then cry about it .
same with a lot of old race tracks even the interstate move in they cry to the government and local zoning boards
[}:)][}:)][}:)] close to where I use to work two brother's build them selfs and families a real nice house(s ) next door to each other in the country
the story goes one of the local farmer's was not fond of them and set up a hog farm about 1/2 away up wind most of the time from the houses not long after they finished the houses and moved in ,needless to say the real nice big $$ houses the air smells like hog poop majority of the time all around
I would wager two very pissed off families and resale of the places if they tried I would be a drop in the bucket to what they spent [B)][B)]0 -
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
quote:Originally posted by US Military Guy
The National Guard post in Camp Dodge has a rifle range.
The neighbor's complained about the late night firing.
The solution was to start firing early enough in order to finish before it was too "late".
It is "almost" dark enough to start at 6:00 PM - right?
[:0]
In the Winter.
Who wants to qualify on the rifle range when it is cold?0 -
Juries were handpicked so that no one was a farmer or in a job that was agriculture related Lawers are from Texas they came up here and shopped for clients the clients did not go looking for the lawyer modern farming enabled us to have cheap food prices these will soon disappear . If the lawsuits are not overturned on appeal Smithfield as well as the rest of the majors will move to another state . The llawers will then turn their sites on the turkey and chicken industries . Pork is a 739 million dollars business in North Carolina poultry accounts for 669 million dollars take that kind of money out of circulation and my state will soon look like a third world country 0 -
quote:Originally posted by US Military Guy
quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
quote:Originally posted by US Military Guy
The National Guard post in Camp Dodge has a rifle range.
The neighbor's complained about the late night firing.
The solution was to start firing early enough in order to finish before it was too "late".
It is "almost" dark enough to start at 6:00 PM - right?
[:0]
In the Winter.
Who wants to qualify on the rifle range when it is cold?
Marines Stationed at 29 Palms.0 -
Since these are "nuisance" lawsuits, can the people fired due to these lawsuits now sue the people who filed the lawsuits because that is why plants shut down and jobs were lost? And of course the lawyers who filed them and made a huge chunk of the money anyway. Makes just as much sense. 0 -
These huge mega hog farms are not farms, they are industrial sites and should be treated as such. This is true Factory Farming. 0 -
I quit buying any Smithfield labeled products after learning that they were Chinese owned. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by guns-n-painthorses
These huge mega hog farms are not farms, they are industrial sites and should be treated as such. This is true Factory Farming.
My sympathy evaporated when I read that Smithfield is now owned by China.
I agree though that if the farms were present before the developments then there should be a certain amount of leniency extended to the farms. Northerners moving in to the south are causing alot of these problems. Dumbass move out next to farms, then call 911 because they are worried about the cows being outside in the rain in winter.
Go to Top of Page0 -
First off: I can attest to the putrid stench of a hog waste lagoon. There are many within a 20 miles radius of my house(all Smithfield or contractors to Smithfield). There are small towns that are nearly untenable due to the stink on warm summer evenings when the wind is blowing from lagoon toward town.
All of the houses and towns were there when the lagoons and barns were built. For years, residents complained w/o much help simply because the hog farm held the county for ransom. Too many county residents working or with family working at the farms or processing plant to even put together a jury for a court case. A few people with political connections or a lawyer in the family got some compensation or accommodation but most just choke and bear it.
I don't like Smithfield, their corporate partners, or their stink, BUT anyone building within 5 miles of a hog barn should already know what to expect.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Brookwood
I quit buying any Smithfield labeled products after learning that they were Chinese owned.
Good info.
I also now!0 -
He bought his house out of foreclosure.....
Basic common sense is missing here. Know what you are buying, know the neighborhood and check it out before plunking down your money. I do not feel sorry for this guy.0 -
quote:Originally posted by bpost
He bought his house out of foreclosure.....
Basic common sense is missing here. Know what you are buying, know the neighborhood and check it out before plunking down your money. I do not feel sorry for this guy.
He's not part of the lawsuit. So he got sucked into testifying and will get nothing from it. I bet he's rethinking that about now.0 -
FWIW
Smithfield is NOT owned by China. The company went through an "aggressive buyout" by Chinese investors. Since so much of the production was going to China anyway, the Chinese businessmen decided they could compound their profits by owning the American production.
This doesn't change the idea of foreign ownership or the stink but considering the percentage of product being sold within the US vs what's shipped to China market, whether you and I buy their pork products has little effect.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
First off: I can attest to the putrid stench of a hog waste lagoon. There are many within a 20 miles radius of my house(all Smithfield or contractors to Smithfield). There are small towns that are nearly untenable due to the stink on warm summer evenings when the wind is blowing from lagoon toward town.
All of the houses and towns were there when the lagoons and barns were built. For years, residents complained w/o much help simply because the hog farm held the county for ransom. Too many county residents working or with family working at the farms or processing plant to even put together a jury for a court case. A few people with political connections or a lawyer in the family got some compensation or accommodation but most just choke and bear it.
I don't like Smithfield, their corporate partners, or their stink, BUT anyone building within 5 miles of a hog barn should already know what to expect.
That is why I asked who was 1st in this case the Home owner is in the right. PS You have never smelled a Bad Hog farm till you have smelled one on Okinawa.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Mobuck
FWIW
Smithfield is NOT owned by China. The company went through an "aggressive buyout" by Chinese investors. Since so much of the production was going to China anyway, the Chinese businessmen decided they could compound their profits by owning the American production.
This doesn't change the idea of foreign ownership or the stink but considering the percentage of product being sold within the US vs what's shipped to China market, whether you and I buy their pork products has little effect.
I have to politely disagree. If no one buys Smithfield products, they will not stay in business much longer! Chinese investors owning most of the companies stock means to me that the company is owned and CONTROLED by the Chinese!0 -
My wife has been buying Smithfield bacon for quiet awhile but she won't be any longer. 0 -
https://www.voanews.com/a/china-owned-smithfield-foods-growing-little-change/2972885.html
48,000 employees. wonder how many of them are Chinese? or care who signs the paychecks? I don't buy their stuff anyway btw.
I bet half the shoes/clothes you own have a made in china tag. and how much stuff in the garage or tool room?
so where are the "never harbor freighters"?0
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