A juror in the PSF hog farm trial knows money can’t buy justice

Ed Venerable‘s routine as a 30-something I.T. guy was disrupted in February by a summons for jury duty. Rather than troubleshooting at a keyboard, Venerable spent five weeks in a Jackson County courtroom, listening to testimony about pig shit.

As this week’s feature describes, Venerable and his fellow jurors ultimately found Premium Standard Farms liable for causing a prolonged nuisance to their neighbors, a group of farmers who own property near PSF’s Homan farm in Gentry County, Missouri. The jury awarded the plaintiffs $11 million for the rank odors that continue to waft from PSF’s 80,000 hogs and their waste.

Meanwhile, PSF’s attorneys installed a shadow jury to watch the proceedings. The shadow jurors found in favor of PSF. Venerable thinks there’s a pretty obvious reason for that.