Judicial Watch: Jury Orders Big Hog to Pay Injured Neighbors
In the first big damages case against the hog industry in our state, a North Carolina jury ordered Big Hog to pay over $50 million to neighbors injured by pollution from a Bladen County corporate hog farm.
The trial wrapped up last week, and the implications are huge for the fight to force a cleanup of the notoriously polluting industry. The plaintiffs—10 neighbors of a single farm—didn’t sue the individual, local farm owner. Instead, they sued Smithfield Foods, the corporate giant which contracted with the farm for its production, and whose standards and contract requirements effectively dictated every step of the process.
This is just the first of multiple, similar legal cases heading toward trial in North Carolina. Smithfield has already announced it will appeal the decision, but the hog (if you’ll pardon the phrase) now may already be out the gate in its impact on the industry’s polluting practices.
“This verdict proves, once and for all, that ‘cheap meat’ is a myth,” said Michelle Nowlin, supervising attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke University. “Someone pays the price of production, and for far too long, that burden has been on the rural communities that are home to North Carolina’s factory farms.”
For a more detailed look at the massive environmental justice implications of this decision, read NC Policy Watch environmental reporter Lisa Sorg’s analysis.
