RALEIGH — Several lawsuits against the world's largest pork producer are on pause.

WRAL-TV reports that Smithfield Foods and its hog farm neighbors have asked to push back proceedings in upcoming lawsuits.

Both sides requested the delays, saying they had agreed to pursue options for "alternative resolution" to future trials.

A federal jury decided earlier this month that the world's largest pork producer should pay $473.5 million to neighbors of three North Carolina industrial-scale hog farms for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors, flies and rumbling trucks

That decision made three straight multi-million-dollar losses for the Hong Kong company.