Although new tariffs and multimillion-dollar jury verdicts in North Carolina hog nuisance trials have garnered most of the agribusiness community’s attention over the past several months, there is another matter brewing in a St. Louis courtroom that may have substantial adverse consequences for the meat industry.

Major media outlets and a handful of industry pundits quickly attached the "landmark" label to a recent multimillion-dollar jury verdict against Murphy-Brown, the hog production division of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods.