Draft:Environmental impact of pig farming

Australia[edit]

Australia is home to one of the largest pork industries in the world with farms across Australia collectively containing over 300,000 pigs but there are high levels of water pollution. While clean drinking water is essential to the growth and development of pigs, high levels of hard minerals and water-borne pathogens have been found in many of Australia's pig farms. Poor water management poses a threat to the well-being and performance of pig production.

France[edit]

Swine farm manure leads to toxic algal blooms in the French region of Brittany. Industrial pig farming has become a common practice for producing pork in the country of France. However, the local community comprised of consumers has become skeptical of intensive industrial pig production. Safety factors, quality of meat and impacts on the environment are all reasons for the decrease of pig farming production throughout France. Organic methods for raising swine has enticed 23% of producers and majority of the consumers support this.

North Carolina[edit]

In 2014, National Geographic wrote a piece on the extent of the contamination in North Carolina. Swine sales in the state (second largest pork producer in the nation) were nearly $3 billion in 2012, and the state received attention in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd caused waste pods on the swine ponds to overflow, polluting the water supply. National Geographic suggested that despite the execution of a $17 million research project on waste in the area, no one in the state seemed to know what to do with the pig waste, which was a huge issue considering that there are nearly as many pigs as people. Nearly two decades later when Hurricane Florence hit the coast of North Carolina in 2018, hog waste remained a major concern. According to the NC Pork Council, 98% of hog lagoons experienced minimal impact. The NC Department of Environmental Quality identified six hog farms with anaerobic lagoons that suffered structural damage and 28 farms that had lagoons overflow due to the floodwater.

In 2022 The Smell of Money documentary was aired at multiple film festivals that year gaining national media attention, which led to it later being aired on Netflix. This documentary showcases Elsie Herring's struggles living adjacent to a major hog farm in North Carolina, and the fear that herself and residents feel in advocating for their health and safety against a billion dollar, heavily lobbied industry. This film gained very important media attention, and was featured in major news outlets across the country following the films release.

Greenplants2002 edit:

Social justice concerns regarding agricultural lands in rural areas have been rising because of the way minority communities are disproportionally affected by hazards and health risks associated with pig farming. Due to the immense amount of waste produced by pigs, often foul odors and airborne molecules disturb local citizens. There is an unfair distribution of these swine farms, where around 90% are located along the "black-belt", which is known for its previous production of cotton and tobacco farming. Many of the minority farmers are being put out of business because of concentrated animal feeding operations (factory farms). Staggering statistics show that compared to white-owned farms, black-owned farms have declined by 98% and there are only about 18,000 today. Furthermore, environmental justice activists have described the apparent linkage between air pollution and toxic hazards with the demographic of suburban communities that show black and low-income communities being the main targets.

Improvements to pig farming practices in the United States

Due to the many environmental repercussions associated with common pig farming techniques, new technologies were created and tested to help prevent these problems. Manure from swine contains excess nitrogen and phosphorus which gets released into nearby water bodies, polluting streams and rivers and contributing to eutrophication. In order to combat this issue, scientists in North Carolina have tested treatment technologies that are designed to separate the manure. Once the pigs drop their manure, a screening device can be used to separate the solid particles from the liquids. A filtration process can be even more effective with removing extra nitrogen and phosphorus that is still remaining. A filter cloth can catch any remaining particles with a pore size less than an inch. Applying this method can greatly reduce organic matters that come from manure which end up in near-by waterways causing pollution and eutrophication.

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