Ordered to pay $473.5M for pig stench........

[greybeard]

No it doesn't but it does have an effect on small farms...when a big operation moves in next door and renders the area unlivable even for farmers that have been there for generations...and these big hog farm lawsuits have been going on for a long time.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... /73553222/

 

[ddd75]

No it doesn't but it does have an effect on small farms...when a big operation moves in next door and renders the area unlivable even for farmers that have been there for generations...and these big hog farm lawsuits have been going on for a long time.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... /73553222/

that article backs everything i said.

 

[greybeard]

One farmer's rights ends where another begins. The guy (co-plaintiff) in the article is/was a farmer too.

 

[Bestoutwest]

A quick google search shows that this is the 3rd jury this year to hit Smithfield (a Chinese owned company with $1 billion in profits last year) with a large verdict.

They allegedly have about 15,000 hogs per factory farm and they store the waste in large open (instead of covered) cesspools and spray it on fields next to or close to the residents' homes and the drift is carrying it into these neighborhoods. They have also been throwing dead hog carcasses into large open pits and just allowing them to rot, attracting flies, rats, buzzards, and other vermin.

I am not defending or condemning the verdict other than to say that I trust the Constitutional right to juries and I trust the jury to do what they think is right.

I know of a place around here that bought "a dairy" and then converted it to a feedlot. The neighbors were undoubtedly upset and sued. If I remember correctly, there was a big financial settlement as well. The right to farm is one thing, the right to make the area inhabitable for everyone else is entirely another. Also, it's debatable as to what is uninhabitable. Finally, it's interesting that there are those on here who condemn those who brought the lawsuit, yet they know nothing about said individuals, their upbringing, nor what living next to one of these places is like.

 

[Dave]

Right to farm generally prevails. It is when someone builds something new or makes a major change that neighbors can over rule right to farm.

 

[greybeard]

Right to farm generally prevails. It is when someone builds something new or makes a major change that neighbors can over rule right to farm.

And that is exactly what happened in the latest Smithfield thing.

the problem began about two years ago, when the livestock company operated by his relatives built a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, next door to his home. The feedlot included two 33,500-square-foot buildings that warehoused up to 8,000 hogs and collected, stored and disposed of millions of gallons of feces and urine in the fields near Himsel's property

The right to farm or conduct any other business or enterprise doesn't mean we can do so to the exclusion of everything and everyone else's rights, or without consequences.
among those (unalienable rights) are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

 

[Fieldhand]

Seems crazy high amount to be awarded to so few people that were not injured. They could've been bought out for a fraction of that.

I hate to comment when I don't know the real facts, Smithfield did something to pi** the jury off. $450 million was in punitive damages. It was reduced to $94 million by the Judge pursuant to the state law. My guess is that what they did was very egregious or they flat out got caught in a lie. The infamous McDonalds coffee case is a good example. What wasn't reported in that case was that McDonald's got caught in several lies they told in Court under oath and the jury punished them for it by giving her an award of 1 weeks worth of McDonald's coffee profits. By the way, that lady never got that money, it was remanded for a new trial and it was settled.

The real facts are not always what the reporters write.

Sad isn't it? Hadn't heard the McDonald's case was remanded.