Premium Standard Farms and attorneys for nearly 300 Missourians who sued the company because of hog odors announced a confidential, joint settlement Thursday. The settlement resolves legal cases that in some instances have been pending for more than a decade.

The company based in Princeton has been the target of lawsuits that company officials warned could push them out of Missouri.

PSF has spent tens of millions of dollars to develop new technology to handle the odor from hundreds of thousands of closely confined hogs. Attorneys for many of the plaintiffs said the settlement was made possible by Premium Standard’s implementation of odor control systems.

“This agreement effectively brings the Missouri nuisance litigation to a close,” said co counsel Jean Paul Bradshaw , “and allows PSF to focus its entire efforts on what it does best: providing families with wholesome, nutritious food and creating jobs in Northern Missouri.”

“The settlement announced today represents the culmination of a long battle,” said Stephen A. Weiss, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “After four grueling trials over the past six years alone, we were prepared to litigate each claim, but this agreement hammered out between the parties is a fair and just resolution of what not long ago seemed to be an irresolvable dispute.”

The terms of the agreement are confidential. You can read the entire statement here.