NC Pork Council
Renewables company could transform how millions of tons of hog waste are managed in NC
Montauk Ag Renewable has test site in Duplin County and plans to operate plant in Sampson County, but will it work? Outside a large steel barn in Magnolia, Martin Redeker scooped loads of dried hog waste, composted with carbon, onto a snow shovel for anyone to take a deep whiff. It smelled.
Hear no evil, see no evil? Senate committee limits public comments on controversial farm bill that would limit public comments
A Senate committee on Wednesday shut down public discussion of a contentious portion of the Farm Act, which coincidentally, sharply curbs public input on swine farms that install biogas systems and anaerobic digesters. The hog and energy industries support biogas, arguing the systems help alleviate climate change by capturing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that would otherwise be released into the air.
Today in greenwashing: a state-sponsored video about the purported benefits of biogas
A two-minute video promoting the alleged benefits of biogas is notable not for what it says, but for what it fails to say. The video was co-sponsored by the NC Department of Agriculture, the NC Pork Council and the state’s Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Heather Overton, spokeswoman for the agriculture department, said the commission paid $5,600 […]
A federal appeals court judge’s remarkable speech is the latest surprise in NC’s hog nuisance lawsuits
Last Friday morning in Richmond, Va., midway through oral arguments in the hog nuisance case of McKiver v. Murphy-Brown, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III removed his glasses and briefly rested his cheek on his hand, as if burdened by the content of thousands of pages of case documents he had read.
“What troubled me...
Lawsuit challenges constitutionality of NC laws protecting hog industry from nuisance actions
State lawmakers allegedly violated the North Carolina constitution when they passed legislation that stripped residents of their right to sue industrialized hog operations for nuisance, according to a legal complaint filed this week.
The Farm Act, state budget are “erecting a fortress for the hog industry”
Disclosure: The NC Justice Center filed a brief in support of plaintiffs suing Smithfield/Murphy-Brown for nuisance. NC Policy Watch is a project of the Justice Center, but had no role in the decision to file the brief nor its contents. In order to maintain its editorial independence, Policy Watch has not read the brief and […]
Swine farmers, hog industry turns out in force to oppose revisions to draft permits
DEQ proposes stronger regulations, but waste lagoon and sprayfield system would remain status quo
Jed Arena stands in his backyard, placing most of his weight on one bent leg. A former hog farm worker for Tyson, Smithfield and smaller operations, he’s been fighting off a bacterial infection in his spine. About 10 years ago, well before his recent diagnosis of osteomyelitis, he contracted MRSA...
In settlement with environmental groups, DEQ changes complaint process about swine farms
The NC Department of Environmental Quality says it will be more transparent about how it handles citizens complaints against industrialized livestock farms, including those that have been cited for violations as the result of those complaints. DEQ is implementing the new complaint investigation process as part of a settlement agreement with several environmental groups and […]
Gov. Cooper vetoes hog nuisance bill; new court documents show fecal bacteria from hogs on homes
This post has been updated with a comment from Rep. Jimmy Dixon. Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed House Bill 467, which would sharply curb the rights of private property owners to sue hog farmers in so-called nuisance lawsuits.The bill had passed the House 68-47, and the Senate 74-42. The measure would restrict the amount of compensatory […]
Live blogging the House vote on hog bill, H467
[dropcap] T [/dropcap] he prayer just started, followed by the pledge. The Speaker is recognizing Marcia Morey, the new representative from House 30 in Durham. She’s a former judge. We’re warming up with a couple of other bills, 265 and 293, and there seems to be some question of whether Speaker Moore has a hearing problem […]
A jowl-dropper: NC Pork Council woos investigative reporter Andy Curliss to be new CEO
This post has been updated to more accurately explain the timeline of Curliss’s internship at The N&O. Award-winning investigative reporter Andy Curliss was just an intern at The News & Observer the summer of 1995, before it won the Pulitzer Prize for its incisive examination of the state’s hog industry. That damning series, published in February 1995 by Pat […]