This book is based on hundreds of hours of in-depth conversations with over sixty people connected in one way or another to the nuisance lawsuits against Smithfield Foods. Most of my sources make appearances in the story (all under their real names), but a few agreed only to speak on background, and a handful of others I consulted on technical points of law and science.
Along with immersing myself in the lives of the main players, I spent months on the road, traveling the byways of eastern North Carolina, visiting people in their homes, sitting on porches, touring hog farms, and learning the rural landscape. I went hiking in the wilderness and up in the air in small planes. I familiarized myself with the North Carolina General Assembly and witnessed key parts of the last federal trial in Raleigh. I traveled to Richmond, Virginia, and attended the appellate hearing before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. As time marched on, the people who animate this story became more than research subjects. They became friends. Yet they never asked more than this: Tell the truth. Let the world see what we saw.
In addition to my original research, I leaned heavily on the voluminous public record in fleshing out the narrative—the court record from the state and federal cases, the legislative record from the North Carolina House and Senate and the U.S. Congress, and the media record, including countless articles in print and online, television interviews and event footage, documentaries, and books. I have included a record of essential sources in the endnotes. Beyond that, I relied on my years of experience as a litigation attorney—and before that as a law clerk in the federal courts—to interpret the legal nuances of the cases and the reactions of the individuals involved.
All quotations in the story are derived from the memories of people who participated in, or witnessed, the relevant conversations, from prior media accounts in which the speaker is quoted, from video or audio recordings of the speaker in the public domain, and from transcripts of legal proceedings. Because most of us speak in a way that sounds better in person than it looks on the page, I applied a light editorial brush to spoken words for the benefit of concision and clarity. Also, in the courtroom scenes, I often condensed lengthy and labyrinthine exchanges between lawyers, witnesses, and judges to maintain narrative pacing and minimize legalese. I included as much dialogue in the story as I could, but I invented none of it.
Six months before the book was scheduled for publication, I reached out to Smithfield for an interview. I also approached two of its lawyers by email, both of whom make appearances in the story. One of the lawyers sent me a prompt and courteous reply, saying he had passed my message along and requested permission to speak with me. From his silence—and that of the company itself—I assume that permission was never granted. Thankfully, it wasn’t difficult to tell Smithfield’s side of the story. I relied upon the company’s many press releases, the court testimony of its representatives, and the public statements of its allies.
Although I wrote this book in the style of a novel, everything you are about to read is true. Some stories really are wilder than the fancies of the imagination.
This is one of them.