The permit that sets the rules for about 2300 swine facilities affecting the public and environmental health of our region is only reviewed every 5 years. NOW IS THE TIME AND COMMENTS ARE DUE MARCH 4. Below is a summary of the issue. If it’s important to you, PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS TODAY! The Department […]
Category: Industrial Farming (CAFOs)
Tell North Carolina: Clean Up Your Act!
By Ellen Simon Simon is an Advocacy Writer at Waterkeeper Alliance, the largest and fastest growing nonprofit solely focused on clean water. Reposted with permission by Waterkeeper Alliance. Hurricane Florence left North Carolina awash in hog waste. We have an opportunity this year to take important steps to address our waste problem, which troubles the […]
Op-Ed: Florence, Factory Farms and Floodplains
Hurricane Florence unveiled one of North Carolina’s dirty secrets to the nation: we allow millions of tons of hog waste to be stored in open pits — in a floodplain. Read our Op-ed, published in the Wilmington StarNews October 7, 2018 for more information. Visit our TAKE ACTION page for ways you can address this […]
Environmental Onslaught, Courtesy of Corporate Overreach
It’s no secret that the federal government has been eradicating environmental protections and altering the mission of many of the Administration’s environmental and natural resources agencies over the past year and a half. Some states are combating this assault by enacting state laws to protect the vital environmental resources that support their public’s health and […]
NC Farm Act Amendment: “Right to Farm” or “Right to Pollute?”
A federal judge recently awarded citizens living near a large (15,000 head) hog-rearing factory in rural North Carolina damages for the nuisance caused by the facility’s open-air waste management processes, in which hog manure and urine is liquefied, stored in giant outdoor cesspools and then sprayed on land near their properties. The lawsuit targeted the […]
Huge Win – This Time
New to Industrial Farming? Check out our “Introduction Post.” All caught up? Read on… On April 26, jurors awarded 10 citizens living near a 15,000-head swine operation $750,000 in compensatory damages and hit Smithfield Foods, which owns the animals, with $50 million in punitive damages. This was the first trial of a suit filed by […]
The Smell of Money: Hint, it Stinks
New here? Wondering what an industrial farm, or a CAFO is? Check out our Introductory post. If you’re up-to-speed, here’s what matters these days on this issue: On April 4, the first in a series of groundbreaking lawsuits against the country’s largest pork producer, Murphy-Brown LLC, began in federal court in Raleigh. More than 500 […]
Introduction: Industrial Farming
Cape Fear River Watch has been advocating, education and taking action on this issue for decades. This is a long battle, and requires not only regulatory changes, but also a broad-scale transformation in consumer attitudes, expectations and spending. What is a CAFO? CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation; it is the process by which […]