For the first time in what seemed like weeks, sunlight glinted off the granite steps of the Jackson County Courthouse as Jonathan Harmon and two members of his legal team burst through the doors and outside. Grinning, their dress shoes clattering and blazers flapping, they raced toward 12th Street like stir-crazy kids ditching school.
For four weeks in Circuit Judge Jay A. Daugherty's fifth-floor courtroom, Harmon had worn the serious face that corporate litigation necessitates. Harmon, a lawyer with McGuireWoods LLP, represents Premium Standard Farms, a pork manufacturer that owns large-scale confined-animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in northern Missouri. It was Harmon's job to convince a jury that the stench created by 80,000 hogs living on PSF's Homan Farm in Gentry County, Missouri, was just part of normal country living.
Harmon's opponents contend that the stench is a life-altering nuisance to 15 family farmers who live within a mile and a half of the swine facility.
PSF's lawyers were excited because, on that sunny day, the jury was going on a field trip. A bus would take the jury to Berlin, Missouri, past the homes of each plaintiff and the neighboring hog farm. The purpose was to give the jurors a sense of the properties' proximity, not to detect hog odor — Daugherty had ruled that the bus's windows stay sealed and its air vents kept closed.
While the jury rode around Gentry County, another group of citizens would sit around a table at Dunk's Deli, a few blocks west of the courthouse on 12th Street. They, too, were deliberating the facts of the case. These were shadow jurors. PSF had installed them in the gallery during the trial in order to gauge how effective the plaintiffs' arguments were.
PSF, which has used its pork-manufacturing profits to influence industry-favorable legislation and to fund industry-favorable science, had once again managed to convince people to see things its way. In two hours, the shadow jury returned the verdict that Harmon wanted to hear: Premium Standard Farms was not guilty of creating an odor nuisance.
Unfortunately for PSF, this wasn't the jury that mattered.
The trial began February 3 of this year, and the shadow jury had been there from the start. Most onlookers assumed that the people furiously scribbling notes on the defendant's side of the courtroom were law students or reporters.
Daugherty tells The Pitch that attorneys aren't required to notify him when a shadow jury is present. In his 19 years on the bench in Division 13, he has rarely seen one. "I would assume they are very expensive and obviously time-consuming," he says.
The weekend before the PSF trial's start, employees for a company called Nolan Research made cold calls to Jackson County residents and said they were looking for people to participate in a market-research project. About 50 recruits who'd been promised $50 each went to a meeting at the Embassy Suites hotel near Westport. At the hotel, each was given a questionnaire to fill out and a nondisclosure agreement to sign. On February 2, 13 people received telephoned instructions to show up at the Jackson County Courthouse at 8 a.m. the next morning.
The shadow jurors entered the courtroom at the same time as the real jury and were ushered to the defendants' side of the gallery. They had been instructed not to speak to anyone except one another, which is why those who were interviewed by The Pitch requested that their identities be kept confidential.
An older man with sloping shoulders and quick, darting eyes — the shadow jurors knew him as "Jack" — was the enforcer. During breaks, the shadow jurors were herded into an isolated corner of the fifth-floor hallway. If one of the men had to use the restroom, Jack went with him. Women shadow jurors went in pairs. Any who missed a day of the trial were kicked off the project. Each night, they were expected to wait by the phone for a call from L&E Research, a company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The caller would survey their opinions of the day's proceedings.
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i should move to the city and sue for smog and the horrible smell coming from the factories. I cant stand to drive downtown kc cause the stink and everyone wants to complain about livestock up here. Wake up america, with out big corperate farming how are you to buy meat at the store, its simple you WONT. Big corperate farms did not run off the little guys, most quit hobby farming cause they was not making enough to pay the bills and many went bankrupt. Lots of small farms now are tied in with big corperate farms through contracts. So lets take away all farming, hogs cows chickens, etc. then we will feed america with salads and rice and i will be the first to stand up for the vegatables(they have feelings to) What a life, plant something and it grows to maturity just to be cut to pieces and put in a salad, now thats wrong. Then we can all starve to death. everyone needs to get a life and quit sueing for every little reason, seems that law suits get more stupid all the time. If you dont like the stink then move away, we dont need you here anyways. AS for those who already sued, if they hatedthe smell so bad then why the hell did they stay after they sued the first time, they could of took the money and ran. instead they stay and make our life more miserable
i should move to the city and sue for smog and the horrible smell coming from the factories. I cant stand to drive downtown kc cause the stink and everyone wants to complain about livestock up here. Wake up america, with out big corperate farming how are you to buy meat at the store, its simple you WONT. Big corperate farms did not run off the little guys, most quit hobby farming cause they was not making enough to pay the bills and many went bankrupt. Lots of small farms now are tied in with big corperate farms through contracts. So lets take away all farming, hogs cows chickens, etc. then we will feed america with salads and rice and i will be the first to stand up for the vegatables(they have feelings to) What a life, plant something and it grows to maturity just to be cut to pieces and put in a salad, now thats wrong. Then we can all starve to death. everyone needs to get a life and quit sueing for every little reason, seems that law suits get more stupid all the time. If you dont like the stink then move away, we dont need you here anyways. AS for those who already sued, if they hatedthe smell so bad then why the hell did they stay after they sued the first time, they could of took the money and ran. instead they stay and make our life more miserable
I live in the country, and have kept pigs as well as chickens, horses and dairy cows. We never had any kind of stench except actually being in the hog pen or the chicken coop.
When we kept a milk cow, she was clean and friendly, and smelled vaguely milky. We gathered her waste along with the horse's and pigs' and composted it before spreading it on the garden.
But in visiting family around the country, I have had several occasions to drive past Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) - actually mega-dairy farms. The smell is unbelievable, like a physical presence that almost literally hits you in the face.
You try to hold your breath, or change the way you breathe, and speed up your car to a dangerous rate. People who live nearby are helpless. They can't sell their property, no one in their right mind would agree to move to a place anywhere near a CAFO. The smell can travel for miles on a calm day, like an invisible load of poisoned air.
The animals cannot be healthy. The owners have a mansion on their dairy farm, but don't - can't - live there.
I've been on a number of juries in my rural county, including capital cases, and I know that all juries work hard to understand the evidence presented. The comments which put down juries are most likely made by the folks who spin elaborate fictions to avoid their civic duty, I've watched that too.
I live in the country, and have kept pigs as well as chickens, horses and dairy cows. We never had any kind of stench except actually being in the hog pen or the chicken coop. When we kept a milk cow, she was clean and friendly, and smelled vaguely milky. We gathered her waste along with the horse's and pigs' and composted it before spreading it on the garden. But in visiting family around the country, I have had several occasions to drive past Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) - actually mega-dairy farms. The smell is unbelievable, like a physical presence that almost literally hits you in the face. You try to hold your breath, or change the way you breathe, and speed up your car to a dangerous rate. People who live nearby are helpless. They can't sell their property, no one in their right mind would agree to move to a place anywhere near a CAFO. The smell can travel for miles on a calm day, like an invisible load of poisoned air. The animals cannot be healthy. The owners have a mansion on their dairy farm, but don't - can't - live there. I've been on a number of juries in my rural county, including capital cases, and I know that all juries work hard to understand the evidence presented. The comments which put down juries are most likely made by the folks who spin elaborate fictions to avoid their civic duty, I've watched that too.
Actually hogs don't smell when they are raised as they are intended to live - with room to move on solid ground rather than packed into an airless building standing on grates for their entire lives.
To those who feel that the plaintiffs were motivated by greed - this group can't even begin to summon the level of greed of these factory farmers and the corporattions that control them.
If the odor is unbearable at neighboring homes, imagine living in the enclosed building with a slurry of your waste (and the occasional corpse) collecting below you.
In the end, no matter who wins in court, the animals are the losers.
Actually hogs don't smell when they are raised as they are intended to live - with room to move on solid ground rather than packed into an airless building standing on grates for their entire lives. To those who feel that the plaintiffs were motivated by greed - this group can't even begin to summon the level of greed of these factory farmers and the corporattions that control them. If the odor is unbearable at neighboring homes, imagine living in the enclosed building with a slurry of your waste (and the occasional corpse) collecting below you. In the end, no matter who wins in court, the animals are the losers.
The comments from the city folks that bemoan the smell of hog poop made me grimace. I live within 3 miles of these hog barns and the smell is not unbearable...in truth there is rarely any odor at all. The people that sued did so for one reason only--greed. They have sued before and they will sue again until they kill the golden hog that supplies employment for North Missouri. How interesting that they sealed up the bus when the jurors had their day trip. The people that live here know the truth that the jurors don't. There is not an odor problem, there is a GREED problem. Too bad the newly rich aren't willing to share their windfall as they take food out of the mouths of the children of North Missouri.
The comments from the city folks that bemoan the smell of hog poop made me grimace. I live within 3 miles of these hog barns and the smell is not unbearable...in truth there is rarely any odor at all. The people that sued did so for one reason only--greed. They have sued before and they will sue again until they kill the golden hog that supplies employment for North Missouri. How interesting that they sealed up the bus when the jurors had their day trip. The people that live here know the truth that the jurors don't. There is not an odor problem, there is a GREED problem. Too bad the newly rich aren't willing to share their windfall as they take food out of the mouths of the children of North Missouri.
Typical city types who think you know how we live in North Missouri. It is no secret if you are going to sue a company make sure you do it Jackson County where litigants always get a big pay off. I lived 10 years in KC and people it stinks down there. I moved out of KC to get away from the crime, lousy school system and industrial SMELL to live in North Missouri. I live less than a mile from a nursery farm. Guess what I do have people out for bbq's and sit on my deck! I own cattle and Boer goats and I love the smell of the country. I wake up to birds chirping and wildlife in my back yard. I don't wake up to sirens and gun fire. To all of you in the city who think livestock is unbearable. You need to stay in KC or St Louis. We don't want you in the country! As for the 15 families that won money from PSF hope you enjoy it when there is no PSF, no jobs, no 2,500 employees. Wonder who will they sue next for free money. Probably the cattle producers.
Typical city types who think you know how we live in North Missouri. It is no secret if you are going to sue a company make sure you do it Jackson County where litigants always get a big pay off. I lived 10 years in KC and people it stinks down there. I moved out of KC to get away from the crime, lousy school system and industrial SMELL to live in North Missouri. I live less than a mile from a nursery farm. Guess what I do have people out for bbq's and sit on my deck! I own cattle and Boer goats and I love the smell of the country. I wake up to birds chirping and wildlife in my back yard. I don't wake up to sirens and gun fire. To all of you in the city who think livestock is unbearable. You need to stay in KC or St Louis. We don't want you in the country! As for the 15 families that won money from PSF hope you enjoy it when there is no PSF, no jobs, no 2,500 employees. Wonder who will they sue next for free money. Probably the cattle producers.
I can't wait for Nadia’s next big story about how the economy of N. MO was destroyed and thousands of people's livelihoods taken away because a few people couldn't take the smell of hog crap. It’s so nice that we live in such a litigious society where lawyers can take advantage of a system and get millions of dollars for their clients over something so stupid as the smell of hog manure. Having grown up downwind from a hog farm, I know that it’s not Chanel #5 coming out of hog butts. I hope those few people are happy and creating a fund to take care of the sure to be unemployed people who live off PSF. But power to the people, right?
I can't wait for Nadia’s next big story about how the economy of N. MO was destroyed and thousands of people's livelihoods taken away because a few people couldn't take the smell of hog crap. It’s so nice that we live in such a litigious society where lawyers can take advantage of a system and get millions of dollars for their clients over something so stupid as the smell of hog manure. Having grown up downwind from a hog farm, I know that it’s not Chanel #5 coming out of hog butts. I hope those few people are happy and creating a fund to take care of the sure to be unemployed people who live off PSF. But power to the people, right?
I suppose fresh country air is better than having a JOB. Well, at least the Chinese will appreciate it.
I suppose fresh country air is better than having a JOB. Well, at least the Chinese will appreciate it.
11 million for the common folk!!! I love the verdict and thank GOD for the plantiffs. I have lived in the city all of my life but would move the the country to get away from it's fast pace. The fresh air is one of the pluses that you get. Imagine being on your deck with several guests and the pig smell would overwhelm you. Thank GOD for the not so, little man!
11 million for the common folk!!! I love the verdict and thank GOD for the plantiffs. I have lived in the city all of my life but would move the the country to get away from it's fast pace. The fresh air is one of the pluses that you get. Imagine being on your deck with several guests and the pig smell would overwhelm you. Thank GOD for the not so, little man!
this type of jury trial is a mockery of our total system. Those who have money to afford this type of jury(Tampering) the defense should be able to do the same.
this type of jury trial is a mockery of our total system. Those who have money to afford this type of jury(Tampering) the defense should be able to do the same.
I've followed this story for a while now and can't imagine living downwind from an industrial hog farm. Growing up in farm country, I know that hogs stink as well but to have so many concentrated into one spot only serves to amplify the problem.
Talking with Nadia the other night, she said that the amount of effluent generated was actually much more than she noted in the story, actually 230,000 gallons per day rather than the 230 gallons in the story.
I read The Pitch for good investigative reporting like this story.
I've followed this story for a while now and can't imagine living downwind from an industrial hog farm. Growing up in farm country, I know that hogs stink as well but to have so many concentrated into one spot only serves to amplify the problem. Talking with Nadia the other night, she said that the amount of effluent generated was actually much more than she noted in the story, actually 230,000 gallons per day rather than the 230 gallons in the story. I read The Pitch for good investigative reporting like this story.
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