Posted on 05/05/2018 5:50:44 PM PDT by Libloather
A North Carolina jury awarded $50 million to neighbors of a 15,000-hog farm in Eastern North Carolina in a case being closely watched across the country by environmentalists and the hog farm industry.
The verdict, revealed late Thursday after a jury deliberated less than two days, is the first to come in a series of federal lawsuits filed against Murphy-Brown/Smithfield Foods, the worlds largest pork producer.
In this case decided in a federal courtroom in Raleigh, 10 neighbors contended that industrial-scale hog operations have known for decades that the open-air sewage pits on their properties were the source of noxious, sickening and overwhelming odors. The stench was so thick, the neighbors argued, that it was impossible to get it out of their clothes.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
In the civil rights filing, the groups allege that DENR continues to allow hog farms to use outdated and unregulated waste management systems that pollute the air and water in surrounding low-income and minority-populated neighborhoods.
Heres an excerpt from their complaint:
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/09/10/battle-over-hog-farm-pollution-escalates-as-groups-accuse-state-of-environmental-racism/
Low income people live there cuz it is CHEAP.
This is like the people who gobble up cheap(er) real-estate next to private airports or rifle ranges:
They move in then 3 months later they’re all, “Hey there’s an AIPORT right there..!!”
SELFISH IDIOTS.
I once visited a large hog farm in Tidewater Virginia. It was very clean and well kept but all of a sudden the smell hit me.
I really can’t imagine living near one.
My best friend in high school lived on a hog farm. The truth is that after a while you can’t smell it anymore.
And people wonder why American business people are motivated to invest in China or Mexico
>> clearly a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
Come on down to the screw boys
attorneys at law;
Come on down to the screw boys
if you’ve got something in your craw.
Come on down to the screw boys -
we’ll sue them bastards quick.
And when we get the judgement
it’s YOU we’re gonna stick!
(Bend over, communities of color.)
The truth is that after a while you cant smell it anymore..
People who are pork producers call it the smell of money.
It has a new connotation now.
My late cousin went to Culver Military Acedamy. Didn’t smell that bad even though it was surrounded by a huge hog farm.
I was raised in the North (Massachusetts) and I just left Maine where I stayed for about 10 years , the farmers around there would use liquidated cow manure to fertilize the fields all over and the aroma was to be expected . I totally disagree with the verdict as it was the choice of the neighbors to reside there and I can safely assume the hog farm didn’t just pop up overnight . The appeal is already in the works . I am just curious about the jurors....seems to me that they might be transplants as opposed to the persons who filed suit.
Smithfield is now a Chinese own company......no loved lost as long as no Americans lose their jobs over it.
The methane created by some of those farms with outdated sewage control systems is actually saturated to the point it’s flammable. They can and do explode as if there was a natural gas leak.
I used to rent a farmhouse in the country out in New Jersey - every once in awhile I caught a whiff of a hog farm down the road. Of course the city people moving into the new developments were always complaining about the country stuff. Smells, somebody hunting, etc.
A family from India just moved in next door to us. I almost have to plan my outdoor activities to avoid being outside from about 4 pm to 6 pm while she is cooking! Whatever it is, it sure is nasty smelling. Funny - I smell somebody with burgers or steak on the grill and my mouth starts watering. I don’t know how - but I’m guessing her husband thinks the same thing when he gets home.
They are renting, so hopefully after he works at Microsoft for awhile he can move out to a mansion somewhere.
(Hmm - I don’t suppose I could win a lawsuit??)
Hogs wouldn’t be raised if people didn’t like to eat them.
The confinements took years to get fine tuned for raising healthy hogs efficiently. The improved means of handling the waste and odor issue hasn’t yet caught up with the industry. To allow fresh air to the critters means letting the bad air out. Tough to fix that.
But I hear the streets of San Fran are getting stinky from humans. In that case you have to watch where you walk. :(
Why the knee jerk responses to blame the area residents? Maybe their presence predates the hog farm in it current form? What if this happened to your neighborhood?
Sounds perfectly Kosher to me!
>> methane created by some of those farms with outdated sewage control systems is actually saturated to the point its flammable.
Is this related to the TF (terminal flatulence) effect?
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