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1609 Connecticut Ave NW #400 Washington, DC 20009 Phone: 202.332.3320 Fax: 202.332.3327 |
Help us SUPPORT the next generation of environmental leaders
Industrial Hog Farms and PollutionSacoby Wilson, ELP Fellow 2005-2006For the third day this week, little Jessica is sick with stomach pains and she is unable to attend school. Her mom is worried that her daughter may have to be rushed to the emergency room for the fourth time this year. She doesn't have any insurance and can't afford to take her daughter to see a doctor regularly. This is one of the truths of life that she has learned to manage while living in a poor African-American neighborhood in rural North Carolina. She has sacrificed for Jessica and her other two children by working at multiple jobs including the local chicken factory. Jessica's mom realizes that her daughter's constant health issues didn't occur until two of their neighbors contracted their tobacco farm land to corporate pork producers. Jessica's home is now surrounded by over 10,000 hogs and life has never been the same. Their well water always looks murky and tastes funny and the odors emanating from the hog operations prevent the family from enjoying their property and having a good quality of life. This is a common reality for citizens who live in states with intensive livestock production such as Iowa, Minnesota, and North Carolina. In North Carolina, hog production has grown dramatically over the past 15 years. Prior to 1990, the number of hogs in the state was 2.5 million. The state now has over 10 million hogs raised on confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and is second in hog production in the United States with a production increase of approximately 282 percent from 1987 to 1997. There are approximately 1.5 million more hogs than people in the state. Approximately 90% of the state-wide hog population is located in Eastern NC, the coastal plain region with most of the hog production focused on a six-county area (Duplin, Sampson, Greene, Lenoir, Bladen, and Wayne). The coastal plain is a vulnerable region of the state due to its extensive number of watersheds, its propensity to flood during normal rain, and the occurrence of extreme rain events such as Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Therefore, local aquatic ecosystems are negatively affected by the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that runoff from animal operations in NC. Residents who live near these hog operations in Eastern North Carolina are exposed to a variety of air pollutants including ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (dust), and odorants. As dangerous is their exposure to pollutants such as nitrates that get into their residential, ground and recreational water supplies due to atmospheric deposition, runoff from lagoons and fields, and leaking of the hog waste below the surface of the ground. Like little Jessica, children are highly susceptible to gastrointestinal health risks due to exposure to microbial contamination from hog waste including E. coli and Salmonella, viruses and waterborne pathogens like Giardia and Cryptosporidium. These vulnerable populations are further burdened by unhealthy levels of antimicrobials that can get into the water supply and create antimicrobial resistant microbes. Recently, an agreement was made between Smithfield, the nation's largest corporate pork producer, and the WaterKeepers Alliance to settle environmental lawsuits and have 250 of its NC farms implement anti-pollution measures. What about the other 2,000 hog CAFOs in North Carolina? More efforts should be placed on the enforcement of clean water regulations, extended coverage of livestock operations under the Clean Air Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), removal of legislative protections of corporate pork production as "family farming" and increased ability of disparately burdened communities to develop health ordinances. These actions need to be taken to preserve our water supplies, protect public health, increase the vitality and sustainability of affected communities, and ensure that little Jessica(s) who live near these operations are given the opportunity to enjoy life. Many of these changes can be made by community activists and environmental organizations putting pressure on our government agencies and Congressional representatives on the committees that oversee environmental protection, public health, and agriculture. ------- Sacoby Wilson is an environmental health researcher at the University of Michigan who received his doctoral degree in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-School of Public Health. His dissertation research focused on environmental monitoring and mapping of atmospheric ammonia levels near human populations and hog CAFOs in Eastern North Carolina. Return to the Reading Room |
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