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JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI -- Attorney General Chris Koster said Monday his office will moderate a public meeting of the Premium Standard Farms (PSF) Expert Team on March 16, 7:00 p.m., at the North Central Missouri College in Trenton at the Ketchum Community Center.

Koster said the three-member Expert Team was established in 1999 when the state entered a consent judgment with PSF to correct problems at the PSF farms, including water pollution and odors coming from the farms.  The Expert Team was given the authority to make decisions regarding how PSF would develop and implement Next Generation Technology to address these problems.  He said in 2004, PSF and the state agreed to a new consent judgment that extended the Expert Team process.

Expert Team members were selected by agreement of PSF and the state.  Serving on the team are Dr. John Sweeten, Texas A&M University faculty member and director of the Texas AgriLife Research Extension Center at Amarillo; Dr. Mike Williams, faculty member at North Carolina State University, Department of Poultry Science; and Dr. Larry Jacobson, who has a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering and is a faculty member at the University of Minnesota.

Koster said the team last met in person on November 24, 2009, to talk about technical issues raised by PSF.  He said at that meeting, they agreed to have a public meeting in early 2010 and asked the Attorney General’s office to organize and moderate that meeting.

“This meeting will provide an opportunity for members of the public to express their interests and concerns regarding the process established in the 1999 and 2004 consent judgments,” Koster said.  “I hope everyone who has comments and questions will take part.”