010309 Fed Lawsuit Filed Against Smithfield

Kansas City, MO - A coalition of groups opposed to corporate hog farms has filed federal and state lawsuits claiming Smithfield Foods Inc., the nation's largest hog producer, has broken criminal and civil laws by willfully ignoring environmental regulations.

The federal lawsuits were filed in Florida and North Carolina. The group also filed four notices of intent to sue in North Carolina and one intent to sue in Missouri, where Smithfield owns former Murphy Farms operations.

The coalition of 35 groups representing farmers, environmentalists, ranchers and animal rights organizations is led by The Water Keeper Alliance, which is led by Robert Kennedy Jr.

"This is the beginning of a legal campaign to get the family farmers back to the land and to force the corporations to take care of the land and animals they own," Kennedy told a crowd of about 200 people during a news conference Wednesday in Kansas City.

The North Carolina federal lawsuits and the intent to sue motions allege violations of federal environmental laws. The Florida suit alleges violations of federal racketeering laws and claims the company is funded by illegal profits made by knowingly causing pollution.

The groups also filed a state lawsuit in North Carolina Feb. 23, seeking individual and public damages from Smithfield, as well as an injunction against further pollution, punitive damages and remediation of the state's river systems.

Officials from the Smithfield, Va.-based company, which has hog operations in nine states and processing plants in 11 states, said if Kennedy's group believed environmental laws weren't being enforced, they should sue the Environmental Protection Agency.

"But these lawsuits are not about the environment. They are about the social agenda of a group of unelected, unaccountable trial lawyers who want to override the legal and regulatory framework," Richard J.M. Poulson, a Smithfield vice president, said in a prepared statement.

Kennedy said the legal efforts were a "last resort" because efforts to rein in corporate farms through the political system have failed.

"We know this problem represents a failure of government," Kennedy said. "The groups that are supposed to be regulating these corporations are not doing their jobs, and often are in cahoots with the industry."

He said the coalition ultimately will file at least 20 lawsuits against Smithfield and then will move on to other hog corporations, such as Premium Standard Farms. The groups are represented by what Kennedy said were some of the Top 10 legal firms in the country.

"If we have to we will march across the country and bring these types of cases against every single pork factory in America," he said, which prompted a long standing ovation.

Poulson said Kennedy and his lawyers have "declared war on an industry that constitutes a way of life across the country."

If the lawsuits are successful, they could force Smithfield into bankruptcy and force states to begin enforcing existing environmental regulations, Kennedy said.

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