Smithfield Foods says it will begin covering pig waste lagoons.
The news came Thursday in a news release form the pork industry giant headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, about 70 miles south of Richmond. Smithfield is involved in three nuisance lawsuits which have gone to the U.S. Court of Appeals and 23 more of which are scheduled for North Carolina courtrooms, the next set to begin Nov. 13.
It is unclear if the new procedure is in any way tied to the litigation. Settlement talks have been ongoing since the appeals process began, but through Sunday evening no resolution had been reported.
Sources of the Bladen Journal familiar with the situation but unauthorized to speak on it publicly have said, with appeals in progress, the next case won’t go forward until all three have been heard in Richmond.
The verdicts reached so far have all favored plaintiffs represented by Texas lawyer Michael Kaeske. Murphy-Brown, a subsidiary of Smithfield and its Chinese conglomerate parent WH Group, was the defendant in cases involving Kinlaw Farms of the White Oak community, the Joey Carter Farm in Beaulaville and Pender County farms involving Elizabethtown-based HD3 Farms of the Carolinas’ subsidiary Greenwood Livestock LLC.
Juries awarded $549.25 million in damages, though the amounts were capped by North Carolina law on punitive damages at $97.88 million.
In its announcement Thursday, Smithfield said its company-owned and contract farms over the next decade will cover waste-treatment pits to capture the methane gas and keep out rainwater. The gas will be channeled to processing centers and converted into natural gas.
The Environmental Defense Fund is working with Smithfield to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental group said large-scale rollout of the plan could have the effect over 20 years of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from more than 700,000 homes.
Smithfield said it is expanding to farms across North Carolina, Utah and Missouri.
“When we set an objective, we go big at Smithfield to achieve it,” said Kenneth M. Sullivan, the company’s president and CEO. “Today’s announcement is the culmination of decades spent studying and perfecting the commercial viability of ‘manure-to-energy’ projects. Our investment in these projects underscores our longstanding commitment to sustainability, as well as our promise to produce good food in a responsible way.
“The scale of these projects is audacious. But, through partnerships with a broad coalition of stakeholders, including family farmers, government, energy partners and other constituents, we’re confident we can bring about sustainable, revolutionary progress in our effort to minimize our environmental footprint.”
Smithfield calls its pilot program Optima KV. It has been in operation since late March, using five anaerobic digesters to capture and clean biogas collected from in-ground digesters at five of Smithfield’s contract hog farms. The gas is then transported to a central facility to be converted into renewable natural gas. The facility is located on Smithfield property and operated by Cavanaugh & Associates, a consulting engineering firm, in partnership with swine waste-to-energy project developer OptimaBio.
It is the first project to both source and create renewable natural gas in North Carolina.
“I am proud to be on the ground floor of an initiative that provides my operations with an additional source of revenue, and also supports even stronger environmental management practices,” said John Kilpatrick, owner of Circle K II Farms and a Smithfield contract grower near the Duplin County community of Warsaw. “I am also quite proud of my role in providing clean energy to my community — a role that challenges conventional thinking about agriculture and what it means to be a farmer.”
Smithfield’s moves drew the praise of Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and state House Speaker Tim Moore.
“Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in our state. Investment like this will help ensure this economic pillar stays strong for generations,” Forest said. “We are fortunate to have a responsible company like Smithfield that leverages evolving technologies to ensure the sustainability of its operations while providing more than 10,000 jobs to North Carolinians, further strengthening our economy.”
Smithfield Foods has plans to cover pig waste lagoons on its farms, and those for which it contracts. This is Bull Run, a farm in Sampson County owned by Elizabethtown-based HD3 Farms of the Carolinas.