The Things That Don’t Add Up in Hog Farm Trials

RALEIGH – One of the most popularly mentioned topics in recent mainstream media cycles is the law change regarding limits to nuisance claims between livestock farmers and neighbors, in relation to a specific court case between a big hog farming operation and neighbors suing over stench and effused waste.

The media, and Democrats, have established a narrative of poor, minority neighbors (representing the common man) being violated by a hog farming operation (representing big corporate interests and Republicans are to blame, of course.)

But it should come as no surprise that there is more to the story than the popular media narrative.

The details of the hog farmer vs neighbors case paint a very different picture, and call into question the assumptions most observers made from the jump.

“The truth about the nuisance lawsuit brought by a Texas lawyer against a North Carolina hog farm cannot properly be told by the activists, or the bloggers, or the media, or the lawyers and lobbyists paid to mischaracterize what has taken place inside a federal courtroom in Raleigh since May 29.

They weren’t there.

When you strip away the rhetoric and agendas and misinformation, what you find is that the truth was told in the courtroom. Hopefully, the jury listened.

It came from five people with little interest in the outcome.

Four of them live closer than anyone to the Joey Carter farm that straddles Hallsville Road in Duplin County:

James Newkirk, who was there before the farm.
James’ wife, Wanda.
J.C. Kenan, who was also there before the farm.
Justin “Dub” Davis, who has lived with his family within eyesight for a decade and just built a new, second home nearby.
And the fifth?

It’s the U.S. postal carrier, Kim Whaley, who drives around and past the farm day after day after day.”

The accounts of these five individuals are remarkable considering the picture the media has painted for everyone on this case, and the way the Left has run with it for political gain and demonization of Republicans (and farmers).

But the possible detriment of an innocent man is a mere speed bump for the a Left intent on pushing the interests of trial lawyers and reigning in private businesses.

Read more of the thought provoking accounts from actual neighbors of the farm in question here, and think twice before accepting the media spin about this and other stories with important ramifications in the future.