This is from the Sierra Club Action Daily, #81, May 5, 1999.
Tom
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   BIG PIGS' STENCH FINALLY COSTS IN COURT

     Corporate hog factories last week took a hit in the pocketbook-- the
     only place they seem to have nerve endings.  According to a Columbia,
     MO, Tribune story, a jury awarded hog factory neighbors $5 million for
     having to live around one of the state's largest hog producers. The
     plaintiffs accused the hog operation of creating odors so terrible
     that they make people physically ill.  The jury awarded $100,000 each
     to 52 families living nearest the farms owned by Continental Grain Co.
     in Davies, Gentry, Grundy and Worth counties.

     Missouri attorney general, Jay Nixon spoke out about the case. "It is
     good to have a jury confirm what we have held all along - that this
     type of megafarm, as currently operated in Missouri, constitutes a
     nuisance," Nixon said. "This verdict sends a clear signal that factory
     farms must pay a price if they are not good neighbors."

     The hog farms being challenged in northern Missouri are now owned by
     Premium Standard Farms. The people's attorney said that the
     corporation used the cheapest and quickest techniques to set up its
     farms in 1994 and that since then, waste spills and strong odors have
     been common. The odor, from 28 lagoons, each about 4 acres in size
     that holds the waste from 8,000 hogs, is overwhelming.  Nixon filed
     his own lawsuit against Premium Standard Farms, accusing the company
     of allowing waste to spill from its hog farms, failing to report 11
     spills and over-applying hog waste as fertilizer on nearby farmland.
     Sierra Club's own Scott Dye, who assisted the community, said that the
     case would have "implications to a corporate swine industry that is
     out of control. The message has been sent - loud and clear. Rural
     America will no longer tolerate the destruction of its clean air,
     clean water and rural values for the sake of corporate greed."
     Good stuff, Scott-- as always. But what did the corporate flacks have
     to say for themselves?  "We are disappointed that the jury did not
     have the opportunity to tour our farms and obtain a firsthand
     impression of our operations," Gerard Schulte, assistant general
     counsel for Continental Grain, wrote in a statement released after the
     verdict.  That's mighty neighborly of you, Mister Schulte, but you
     seem to have missed the point! The truth is, nobody could have
     tolerated the stench.

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