Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 5/30/18

Opening proceedings will kick off today in federal court in Raleigh, N.C, in the second trial involving claims from local residents that a hog farm contracted with Smithfield uses an inadequate waste-disposal method that undermines their quality of life. Lawyers will argue over whether Smithfield should be held liable for damages for storing waste from 4,700 hogs in open-air lagoons and spraying it onto fields as fertilizer.

The trial stems from one of dozens of cases filed against Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, on grounds that hog farms using the lagoon-and-spray model make life miserable for nearby residents, who have to deal with the noxious fumes, carcass-laden trucks and swarms of flies associated with industrial-scale hog production. About 500 residents across eastern North Carolina, where hog farming is big business, sued Smithfield in 2014, and the cases stand to threaten a core pillar of the state's economy.

The stakes for North Carolina: Kenneth Sullivan, Smithfield's president and CEO, told The Wall Street Journal that, if the lawsuits succeed, the company "will have to revisit whether we can continue doing business in North Carolina." He said Smithfield has narrow margins in the state in relation to its farms in the Midwest, due in part to the cost of shipping in the necessary grain.

The shadow of the leadoff trial: The first trial, held in April, resulted in the jury awarding the plaintiffs more than $50 million, though the judge reduced the award to $2.5 million in punitive damages per a state law that caps damages. Smithfield intends to appeal that decision while it fights the other trials coming down the pike.

The ag industry is watching: Producers and agribusiness owners are fearful that copycat lawsuits could be filed in other states in industries that extend beyond hog production. The first has already popped up: Four Iowa residents are suing the state's natural resources department for allegedly failing to enforce regulations of air emissions from hog farms. And in Pennsylvania, a group of residents asked the state Supreme Court to review their case against a family-owned industrial hog farm, Will-O-Bett Farm, after losing at the district and appellate levels. Pennsylvania law shields most farms from these so-called nuisance lawsuits.