Lawyers for Smithfield Foods Inc. have asked a court to
scrub all references to China and Chinese from lawsuits filed by neighbours who
object to odours and flies from its hog farms.
More than 500 neighbours in North Carolina are involved in
the lawsuits against Murphy-Brown, a company that Smithfield bought in 2000
before it was itself bought by WH Group of China in 2013.
The complaining neighbours fear that matters will get worse
now that WH Group owns Smithfield because it will increase production to ship
more pork to China.
Lawyers for Murphy-Brown argue in court
documents that litigation over the stink of industrial-scale growing operations
should be scrubbed of references to "the Chinese government, Chinese
corporations, and Chinese demand for and purchases of pork."
The references are "scandalous and
clearly designed to inflame the jury and the public while taking advantage of
xenophobic biases in today's political landscape," the company's lawyers
said, adding the lawsuits are a "platform for negative publicity ... that
will harm Murphy-Brown's reputation."
