 About 500 plaintiffs in 29 cases have sued Smithfield Foods through its subsidiary Murphy-Brown alleging harm from odors and insects associated with anaerobic lagoons.As of July 2019, a federal judge required the two sides to take turns picking cases to establish a typical case value for use in a negotiated settlement.In April 2018, a jury in federal court awarded ten plaintiffs who lived close to a hog farm, Kinlaw Farms in Bladen County, with 15,000 animals a total of $750,000 in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.