Judge Condemns “Appalling Conditions” and “Suffocating Closeness” at US Meat Giant Pig Farm

World’s largest pig producer finally settles years-long legal case, after its industrial factory farm in North Carolina is accused of animal cruelty and destroying nearby resident’s lives.

An aerial view of a farm in North Carolina. Credit: Direct Action Everywhere

A court case trying to hold the world’s largest pork producer to account has laid bare the US’ broken food system that allows industrial factory farms to harm animals and ruin the lives of nearby residents.

Meat giant Smithfield faced a six-year legal fight after being sued by local residents whose lives were ruined by the “stench, flies, buzzards and truck traffic coming from its industrial swine farms in North Carolina”, reports The Guardian.

As the lengthy case reached its end, the judges condemned both Smithfields’ environmental practises and its mistreatment of animals. 

One of the judges, J Harvie Wilkinson III, condemned one of the farms’ “outrageous conditions” – “conditions that there is no reason to suppose were unique to that facility”.

With pigs kept in unnatural and cramped conditions, Wilkinson described the scene as “almost suffocating closeness”, before adding that the conditions affect not only the animals, but the farm workers and the local community too: 

“The dangers endemic to such appalling conditions always manifested first in animal suffering. Ineluctably, however, the ripples of dysfunction would reach farm workers and, at last, members of the surrounding community.”

Over 500 nearby residents, most of them black, filed dozens of lawsuits against Smithfield’s nearby farms back in 2014 at the start of this legal battle, according to The Guardian. The paper reports that the residents “described being trapped inside their own homes, sickened by the smell of hog waste stored in open pits, and unable to hang laundry, cook outdoors, or entertain visitors.”

Now, this new court ruling upholds the resident’s original victory, which saw the $16bn meat giant pay nearby residents almost $550m - which was later reduced to around $98m due to a state law capping punitive damages. 

While this ruling was finally a victory after Smithfields decided to settle, much of the damage has already been done, and industrial animal agriculture continues to wreak havoc across the US. “Our lives have been destroyed by the industry,” Plaintiff Elsie Herring said after the ruling.  

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