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.

Nearly 600 residents of eastern North Carolina filed farm nuisance disputes last month in Wake County.

Smithfield Foods Inc. announced that a third-party audit of its Environmental Management System (EMS) at Murphy-Brown LLC facilities found 'zero' non-conformances.

Murphy-Brown LLC, the livestock production subsidiary for Smithfield Foods, managed more than 450 company-owned farms nationwide without incurring a single environmental notice of violation.