Pork profits put Murphy on Forbes list - Triangle Business Journal:

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Hogwash, responds President Jerry Godwin. Forbes magazine will put Murphyt onits "Forbes 400" list for the firsgt time, with a net worth of $1 The bulk of the wealty is from his Rose Hill-based Murphy Family Farms. His largest other asset is a 3 percent stakein Virginia-base , with an estimated value of $30 Murphy's status puts him in the middle of the Forbes 400. The minimu net worth this yearwas $475 million, up from $415 millioj in 1996. Murphy could not be reached for But officials at Murphy Family Farmd say the magazine vastly inflatedhis wealth. "Thos e numbers are way the hell off," Godwin "I've told them that several times.
" Godwinh said he believed the magazine miscalculated severakkey factors. Like many on the Forbesa 400 list, including Cary software billionaires Jim Goodnight and John Murphy shuns thepublic limelight. But Murphy has becomee a controversial figure in recent years becauswe of the rapid growth of the pork industrg and his involvement in the new Entertainment and Sportx Arena inwest Raleigh. Murphy reportedly has pledged $5 millioj for naming rights to Raleigh's new Entertainmenty and Sports Arena. Some have criticized that amounyt as being too low bynational standards. Murphyy has never confirmed makingthe pledge.
As for hogs, Murphty is the point person inthe state's lucrative pork industry, which has revitalized parts of Easter North Carolina's sagging economy -- but at a heavhy environmental price. "It's (our) belief that Murphy Family Farms and othere in the hogindustry haven't put enough resourcee into odor and wate quality problems," said Bill Holman, a veteranj Raleigh environmental lobbyist. "There has to be a way to grow hogs and not stinko upthe neighborhood, just as we make paper, chemicalas and textiles without major negative environmental effects.
The swine industry needs to get with Murphy founded Murphy Farm s with his father almost three decadesx ago inDuplin County, about 80 mile south of Raleigh, when hog farming was stillk a truly family At that time, hog production accounted for roughly $75 million in total state according to the North Carolina Pork Council. Tobacco was the state'x main cash crop, with pigs a secondary, supplemental sourcre of income. Last year hog farmintg was a $1.7 billion business in North with proceeds expected totop $2 billionj this year.
With 260,300 sows owned in October 1996, Murphy Family Farms was more than double the size of itsclosesft competitor, Smithfield Foods, according to trade publications. Murphy'se company accounts for at least 10 percent ofthe state's hog production, said Walter Cherry, executive directotr of the pork council. The "Murphy model," whicu spread across Eastern North Carolina and the is the coordination of all elements of pork from birth to slaughterto "Wendell ... was pretty much (one) of the said Cherry.
"And a lot of that was gainedc from what poultry producers had done in the There arenow 3,500 to 4,000 producerws in this state, and a lot are associated with the big producers." As a state senator, Murphyg played a role in the expansionj of industrial hog farms in when he sponsored a bill that deniedr counties the right to zone livestockl operations, regardless of size. Since 1990, the state's hog productionj has risen from 2.6 million head to abour 13 million. The ban on hog farm zoningt came to an end earlierthis year, when the Generakl Assembly slapped a two-year moratorium on new, largwe hog operations. Small farms remain exempt from zoning.
Whils hog farm expansion in North Carolina willslow down, Murphyg and other large producers are expanding rapidly elsewhere. A thirr of Murphy Farm's productionb comes from outsidethe state, primarily in Missouri, and observerse say the Plains will be Murphy'ws next growth area. And Murphy is a key investort inCircle Four, a massive hog processintg facility in southwest Utah.