Smithfield Agreement (NC)
Agreement will be key in controlling hog pollution in NC - and the nation
In the summer of 2000, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Environmental Defense and the Sierra Club helped bring about a negotiation between NC Governor Mike Easley, Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms in which the hog producers agreed to phase-out their open-air waste pits and adopt environmentally superior waste management technologies, as identified through a comprehensive study done by NC State University. . Since then, Frontline Farmers, an independent group of contract farmers in NC, has agreed to cooperate with any of the new implementations.
Under the agreement, an environmentally superior technology is one which substantially eliminates atmospheric emissions of ammonia, odor and airborne pathogens. The agreement provided funding to NC State University to test cleaner technologies and obligated the companies to phase-out waste pits (lagoons) on company-owned farms.
In March, 2006, researchers at NC State University released a report detailing five technologies that are environmentally superior to hog lagoons and sprayfields that, if implemented, with result in exponential improvements to the state 's air and water quality. However, the technologies come at a cost that is not determined to be economically feasible for existing hog farmers. While the report relies on an economic model that, while helpful, is incomplete and ignores important factors, such as potential economic benefits derived form implementing the new technologies, SELC recognizes that such innovative technologies come with a cost that can't be ignored.
Regardless, the Phase III report provides an important starting point to move new technologies out of research and onto farms in a cost effective way. SELC looks forward to working with industry, the legislature and the Governor's office to develop a comprehensive plan to make these technologies affordable for the air, water and people of Eastern North Carolina.
