Environmentalist: Hog industry is 'all about the almighty dollar'

For decades, Tom Mattison has been concerned about water quality in natural areas throughout Eastern North Carolina.

In 1996 Mattison channeled his inner passion by becoming a founding board member of the New River Foundation. His work with the foundation led to the founding of the White Oak New River Alliance, which is a Waterkeeper Alliance licensed program, according to Mattison’s biography on the Waterkeeper’s website.

He finds issue with the state’s hog industry as it interacts with the environment.

“The biggest problem is the hog industry is run like the Mafia,” Mattison said. “The hog industry is run by large corporations and it’s all about the almighty dollar.”

The Waterkeeper movement was formed along the banks of the Hudson River in 1966 by local fishermen when the river suffered from decades of industrial waste poured into it. A grassroots effort to clean the river spawned other waterkeeper groups around the world, according the group’s website.

Today, Waterkeeper Alliance unites more than 300 organizations and affiliates - and they’re not alone. Other environmental groups have taken a stance on how the hog industry in the state affects the communities in which they are located.

Cassie Gavin, director of government relations for the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, hopes the ongoing court cases, which involve hog farmers and neighbors who live close to the production facilities, bring change to current practices.

“We hope these cases will motivate Smithfield to improve its hog waste management practices to be more protective of the environment and to be a better neighbor to North Carolinians,” Gavin wrote in an emailed response to questions submitted by The Daily News.

Gavin feels enough time has elapsed since the 1997 Clean Water Responsibility Act was passed. The act put a temporary ban on new swine operations until better ways to manage the waste were identified.

Yet 20 years later, Gavin said “hog farms are still using the same polluting and inadequate waste systems” and he feels the state isn’t doing enough to hold “Smithfield’s feet to the fire to improve environmental performance.”

Mattison said the problem isn’t with the local farmers.

“This is not about the family farmer. The only thing he owns is the property and the equipment and when the pigs are shipped out, the only thing he’s left with is the waste,” Mattison said.

Gavin agreed and believes major pork producers must become better citizens.

“Environmental protection and agriculture can co-exist,” Gavin wrote, citing the burgeoning farm-to-table movement taking root in parts of North Carolina.

Mattison feels the big corporations are holding all the cards and family farmers are left holding lagoons full of animal waste, which eventually make its way into the waterways once the contents are applied to farm land.

Not everyone agrees with Mattison’s assessment or sees the virtues of environmental nonprofit groups such as Riverkeepers.

A press conference and community rally was recently held in support of family farmers at the Joey Carter Farm outside Beulaville. Carter is the second farmer sued by class-action trial lawyers and was found guilty June 30 in a hog-related nuisance lawsuit. A third trial, which began jury selection July 10, is underway in U.S. District Court in Raleigh involving a Pender County hog farm. The trial, Artis versus Murphy-Brown LLC, is in its second week and involves Greenwood Livestock and Dean Hilton, according to court documents.

In all, more than 500 plaintiffs in 11 separate lawsuits, in which residents living near hog farms are suing farmers in separate cases, are slated for court.

At the rally, N.C. Rep. Jimmy Dixon said agriculture is being overly blamed for water quality, and N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler agreed.

“The Black River starts in Sampson County and runs through Duplin County right through hog country and the water quality in that river is rated at the very top in North Carolina. Now how can that be with all the stories you’ve heard about environmental disasters in North Carolina? It’s just not true,” Troxler said.

Gavin begs to differ with Dixon and Troxler, pulling from data collected in two 2015 studies conducted by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill and Johns Hopkins University and by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Geological Survey.

“Studies by the state and researchers have found that some eastern North Carolina rivers that have many factory farms in the watersheds contain high levels of fecal bacteria and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus,” Gavin wrote.

Reporter Mike McHugh can be reached at 910-219-8455 or email mike.mchugh@jdnews.com