Municipal sewage treatment plants pollute more than hog factories. Hog factories are being unfairly singled out for regulation. Odor from hog factories is not really not that bad, and besides there's no scientific basis supporting neighbors' claims of offensive odors. Environmental regulations are killing family farm jobs and causing the hog industry to lose money in North Carolina. North Carolina is the single most regulated state for hogs in the nation.
People living in eastern North Carolina counties think hog factories are just fine the way they are.
Hog factories are not disproportionately hurting low-income or black North Carolinians. The hog industry says that the fact that the pristine Black River runs through Sampson County is evidence that hog farms don't pollute. Hog factories do not discharge waste into streams or rivers. Hog factories discharge waste into streams and rivers in several ways. First , state inspectors documented more than 115 illegal discharges from hog waste lagoons in the first nine months of 1998.