The $50-million judgment against a North Carolina hog farm as a nuisance to its neighbors “is a blatant assault on animal agriculture and rural America,” said the meat industry and three farm groups on Wednesday. “If replicated, it will raise the price of food for consumers.”
Smithfield Foods, the corporate parent of Murphy-Brown, the target of the federal lawsuit by 10 residents of Bladen County, North Carolina, has said it will appeal the jury’s verdict. “Farmers are apparently not safe from attack even if they fully comply with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations,” said Smithfield, the largest U.S. pork processor. Grassroots activists say the decision, reached last week, is a victory against industrial farming nationwide.
In a statement, the North American Meat Institute, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Pork Producers Council, and the National Turkey Federation said farmers “are among the best stewards of the environment and strive to be good neighbors,” and agreed with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that the decision should be overturned. “This miscarriage of justice must be rectified to ensure that the anti-agriculture advocates can’t continue to attack America’s farmers and ranchers.”