Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Jurors Slap Pork Giant Smithfield With $25M For Nuisances

A hog farm in Lyons, Georgia.
Jeff Vanuga, USDA NRCS

A federal jury is punishing the world's largest pork producer with a $25 million verdict after jurors decided that two neighbors of a hog farm suffered unreasonable nuisances from flies, buzzards and rumbling trucks tied to an industrial-scale hog grower.

The jury's verdict Friday ends a five-week trial where attorneys for Smithfield Foods expected to present their best arguments.

It's the second in a series of cases in which more than 500 neighbors of industrial-scale hog farms have targeted the Virginia-based, Chinese-owned company for its open-pit waste handling methods.

Lawyers for the neighbors picked the first case to be tried. That ended in April with jurors awarding 10 neighbors $51 million. The fine was cut to about $3 million because North Carolina law limits punitive damages.
 

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.
Related Stories
More Stories