Premium Standard Farms (PSF) says it has received a month’s extension by the state’s attorney general to work out the details of an environmental plan to comply with the terms of a court settlement dealing with pollution and odor issues in northern Missouri.
PSF filed a plan Thursday with the Circuit Court of Jackson County to implement the final phase of the company’s odor management plan over the next two years for its pig farms in northwest Missouri.
PSF has spent over $40 million in developing next generation technology to reduce odor and address other environmental concerns at its hog operations.
However, PSF says the attorney general’s most recent court filings could endanger negotiations because requests are being made for technologies that either don’t exist or are too expensive.
The attorney general “suggests that financial resources exist to pay $16.5 million for additional technologies on three PSF farms in addition to another $7.5 million that will be spent on barn scraper technology,” company attorney Jean Paul Bradshaw says. “This ignores economic realities and paints a very misleading picture for the court. PSF is an independent operating company. The last three years have been the worst ever in the hog industry. PSF has lost millions of dollars during that time, seriously jeopardizing jobs and even threatening the company’s existence.”
PSF has reached two consent agreements with the court, the first in 1999 and another in 2004. The latest was set to expire July 31, 2010.