Deep in it: North Carolina's hog sh*t problem

[marmar]

from Food & Water Watch:




Hog Waste is Dragging North Carolina Through the Manure


In April, we highlighted the environmental and public health dangers associated with North Carolina’s hog industry, one of the biggest industries in the state. North Carolina’s 10 million hogs produce 40 million gallons of manure each day — that’s more than the number of people in the state. In Duplin County alone, 2.2 million hogs produce twice as much untreated manure as the sewage from the New York City metro area. Efforts to implement a plan to ensure that factory hog farms are incorporating responsible practices of manure disposal continue to be unsuccessful. It’s a tug-of-war between those who want to pull North Carolina away from harmful factory farm methods of manure management and those who want to keep dragging the state through lots and lots of manure.

The State General Assembly initially tried to get North Carolina moving in the right direction — away from the massive hog farms and their awful manure lagoons — back in 1997 by putting a moratorium on new hog farms. After ten years of study and $17 million in developing better farming practices, the Assembly also passed new environmental performance standards for new hog farms in 2007. Compliance to these environmental regulations was completely voluntary for operations that already existed. Unfortunately, it was from these very farms that many of the environmental problems derived.

In the last few years, Rep. Pricey Harrison has introduced bills to make all hog operations compliant with these new air and water quality standards by 2016.This would be the logical next step to help North Carolina get rid of all of its lagoons. But, that’s not what’s happening.

Now, the big hog industry is trying to enact a new shortcut in the form of legislation that was recently introduced into the State Assembly: Senate Bill 501. The bill essentially creates a loophole for industry, allowing any existing hog farms with manure lagoons to make renovations and expansions without having to comply to the new environmental standards. In other words, they can keep their manure pits and add more hogs. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/hog-waste-is-dragging-north-carolina-through-the-manure/

[era veteran]

1. So screwed up, Manure should be a resource

Factory farms put too many hogs out for the land to sustain. In an organic approach there would be smaller hog operations combined with the agriculture to feed the beasts. The manure, in lesser quantities could be composted and returned to the fields. The result is land that improves every year and an agriculture practice that eliminates the need of artificial fertilizers. The factory farm is the problem. The family farm has always been the best way to go. Monocultures destroy the land. Read and implement the concepts of R. Rodale. It will actually save the world.

[MineralMan]

2. Methane generation and organic fertilizer.

That's the answer. Utility companies are already buying the methane from hog farms.

http://www.kingstreenews.com/story/Local-farm-first-in-state-to-generate-power-from-hog-waste

It all just has to be properly managed. Humans eat. Someone has to raise all that food. There it is.

[NickB79]

3. The fact that this is even a problem is mind-boggling

First, we grow corn and soy in the Midwest with massive applications of fossil fuels via fertilizers and diesel for tractors.

Then, we ship the corn and soy to North Carolina, thereby burning up even more fossil fuels.

THEN, we complain that North Carolina is drowning in pigshit because they can't find enough fields to put it on locally and it's too expensive to ship all that shit back to the fields where the corn and soy were harvested from.

And THEN, the farmers in the Midwest complain about reduced soil fertility and add even MORE synthetic fertilizer to their fields, completing the vicious cycle.

We are literally mining topsoil at this point and exporting it away from the nation's breadbasket states :banghead:

What would be intriguing would be a program that mixed charcoal (created from sustainably thinned forests) with the hog manure, thereby creating a nutrient-infused terra preta precursor that could then be applied to farm fields for LONG-TERM soil fertility AND carbon sequestration.

[pscot]

4. Well done

Succinct yet comprehensive. You obviously have no future as a beaurocrat.

[era veteran]

5. I have compost that I infuse every year

with a large amount of finished compost from previous years piles. Lots of burned material, wood ash is added. I manage a busy restaurant and I bring home lots of the waste from produce,tea, coffee, and such. Trying to mix as many bacterias as I can. As a layman, I was intrigued with terra preta the first time I read of it in the book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Oh, the 'culture' is over twenty years old now. I have composted a lot of different stuff. While I don't think it has any special properties it sure is a great fertilizer.

I agree with you about the ruination of our soils. The Gulf of Mexico has that dead zone from the algae bloom from the ammonium nitrate/ nitrogen runoff. It is indeed a vicious circle.
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