Hog production faces court battle

A low-cost, high-volume livestock method pioneered in North Carolina by the world’s largest pork corporation came under fire Tuesday as jurors began hearing a lawsuit from neighbours who say it is endangering their health and making their lives miserable.

The legal action is the first in a string of federal lawsuits against the hog-production division of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods. Its outcome could alter production methods and profits for the company, which controls everything from the feed the animals eat to when they are trucked to slaughter and how the meat lands on consumers’ plates. Smithfield was bought in 2013 by a division of China-based WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer.

In dozens of lawsuits, more than 500 neighbours say that for decades they have suffered headaches, sinus problems and intense, putrid smells that can’t be removed from clothing or household fabrics.

“Smithfield has never done anything to change,” Michael Kaeske, a Dallas, Texas-based lawyer, told jurors. “They’re not going to do anything to change unless you make them.”

The suit heard Tuesday is the first of several test cases against the company. It pits Smithfield against 10 neighbours of a farm raising 15,000 livestock hogs under contract with the pork giant. Kinlaw Farm and its owners are not defendants. Instead, the suit targets Smithfield, which determines the farm’s operating standards.

“Smithfield controls what the growers do and they don’t have the money to do anything different,” Kaeske said.