Two sides to a story: The farmer’s side

I’m a farmer. And I raise hogs. I read Ned Barnett’s editorial about the ‘nuisance’ trials in Raleigh, and I’d like to offer a farmer’s perspective.

Mr. Barnett was critical of two groups of people: Hog farmers, along with Smithfield Foods, and lawmakers. He wrote how our farms degrade eastern North Carolina and how we “treat swaths of eastern North Carolina as cesspools.” And he wrote that a rally held to support Joey Carter – whose farm is being closed down after the outcome of the second nuisance trail – was the work of “Republican lawmakers” who voters ‘should toss out’ of office.

Mr. Barnett didn’t have a kind word to say about either farmers or lawmakers– he views nuisance lawsuits that put farmers out of business as a virtue and views lawmakers who disagree as wrong.

But are farmers the villains he describes? Let’s step back and examine a couple facts. Four of Joey Carter’s neighbors, who live closer to his farm than the two plaintiffs in the second trial, testified Carter’s farm is not a nuisance to them. So did the jury awarding the two plaintiffs $25 million make sense? Or did justice run amuck in a Raleigh courtroom? Stop to remember how these lawsuits started: A group of lawyers from out-of-state came to North Carolina and went door-to-door signing up clients so they could sue farmers like Joey Carter. The proposition they made to their potential clients was simple: You join our lawsuits, we’ll pay the bills, and if we win you’ll get part of the money.

Ned Barnett never mentioned that fact in his editorial. And worse, the same fact was ignored during the trial. (The judge decided jurors should not be told how these lawsuits began.)The original out-of-state lawyers are now gone, replaced by another group of lawyers from Texas, and you have to give those Texas lawyers credit: They’re lethal in a courtroom. And their lawsuits have also been lethal to farmers. Both of the farms they sued over are being shut down. Which is the reason lawmakers decided it was time to strengthen legislation to protect farmers from predatory lawyers, whose lawsuits threaten to cripple a pillar of eastern North Carolina’s economy.

As I said, I raise hogs. However, even when I disagree with Mr. Barnett, I respect his right to have his say. But, at the same time, people need to hear both sides. I’m also grateful to Lt. Governor Dan Forest, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, and to Republican – and Democratic – lawmakers for taking a stand for farmers like me. 

-Chad Herring, Executive Director of NC Farm Families

The Road to Justice

by: Chad Herring, NCFF Executive DirectorMany of us are wondering, how was Joey Carter’s hog farm found to be a nuisance in a courtroom in Raleigh?

After all, in many ways, Joey Carter is a model farmer:

• * his farm is in compliance with all state rules and regulations.

• a respected scientist who studied the farm found no objectionable odor.

• and several neighbors, who live closer to the farm than the two people who sued Joey Carter, testified his farm isn’t a nuisance.

Well, here’s how:

• the jury was told, over and over, the case was against Smithfield Foods, not Joey Carter. But that’s misleading – the jury’s verdict is going to put the Joey Carter farm out of business.

• the jury was never allowed to visit Joey Carter’s farm. How could they determine a farm’s a nuisance without visiting it?

• and the respected scientist, who is an expert on odor, was not allowed to give expert testimony regarding her findings at Joey Carter’s farm. (The plaintiffs’ lawyer made a motion to block her testimony and the judge agreed.)

The jury awarded the two people suing Joey Carter’s farm $25,130,000.It’s hard to believe this happened in an American court. But verdicts like this are the reason Americans have the right to appeal to higher courts. And, in this case, the road to justice leads straight to the Court of Appeals. NC Farm Families stands behind Joey Carter – his hog farm is not and has not been a nuisance.

Smithfield Trial: An Odd Development

When you boil away all the motions and counter-motions the second nuisance trial against Smithfield Foods comes down to one question: Odor. Is odor from Joey Carter’s hog farm an unbearable nuisance for the two neighbors suing him?When the lawyers suing Smithfield presented their case they called an expert witness on odor, a professor from Clarkson University in New York, to testify – and Shane Rogers told the jury he’d proved scientifically that odor from hog farms had reached neighbors houses.Then an odd thing happened.When the time came for the lawyers for Smithfield Foods to call their own odor expert, to testify about her own scientific studies, and to explain why Rogers was wrong, the lawyer on the other side, Michael Kaeske, objected – telling the judge that he should not allow Dr. Pamela Dalton to testify about her scientific studies.And the judge agreed. And ruled Dr. Dalton couldn’t tell the jury what she’d found on the Carter farm as a scientist – though she could testify, subjectively, as someone who’d visited the farm.Doesn’t that sound odd? An expert couldn’t testify about her scientific studies measuring odor during a trial about odor?