When science picks sides: How agenda-driven research targets NC farmers

A familiar pattern is repeating itself: another round of misleading attacks on North Carolina hog farmers is making headlines. An article recently published by Sentient Media — and republished by NC Health News — repeats a litany of claims that unfairly target family farmers who raise pork for millions of American families.

 At the center of these stories is an air quality study by Johns Hopkins professor Christopher Heaney, a protégé of the late UNC activist Steve Wing. As you may recall, Wing was an avowed and proudly “committed activist” — co-founder of the NC Environmental Justice Network — who acknowledged that he was engaged in political science as much as research.

 Wing focused on environmental justice, working closely with community activists to craft studies that supported his agenda. Despite flaws with his methodology and conclusions, his work continues to influence the media — as well as researchers like Heaney who studied under Wing.

 Heaney is following in Wing’s footsteps, establishing close ties with the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH) in Duplin County and the NC Environmental Justice Network. Devon Hall, the executive director of REACH, has even been listed as a co-author on studies conducted by Heaney.

 At Johns Hopkins, Heaney leads an initiative explicitly built to “support movements for environmental justice” through community-driven research around hog farms and other large animal production facilities. The initiative is part of the Center for a Livable Future, an academic organization with fellowship programs named for both Wing and Elsie Herring, a North Carolina resident whose allegations have been well chronicled here.

 All of this is to say that studies like this are purposefully designed from the start to produce an intended outcome. The goal is clear — to portray hog farmers in the worst possible light and generate attention-grabbing headlines that can potentially be used to influence lawmakers or juries.

 What a state air quality study shows

If you want to truly understand air quality around North Carolina hog farms, look at the study conducted by the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality. It conducted 15 months of ambient air monitoring in Duplin County, the nation’s largest hog producing county, in 2018 and 2019. The study used a series of monitors — located within 0.5 miles to 2.5 miles of one or more hog farms — to collect data on three substances of concern: hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and particulate matter

 And what did it show?

 The study found no concern or exceedance related to hog farms, including in the measure of particulate matter. For hydrogen sulfide, the data showed that 24-hour average concentrations were consistently, throughout the study, 10 times lower than the acceptable “ambient” level. For ammonia, the acceptable level was never exceeded. And there were very few events with even measurable concentrations — the largest being attributed to smoke from open burning unrelated to farms.

 The Division of Air Quality concluded that the results “do not constitute a significant air quality issue in the study area.”

 The results were so clear cut that the department determined no additional testing was needed.

 “The results of this ambient air quality study,” the NC Farm Bureau said, “provide a valuable counter-point to the narrative from (other groups) that swine farms are contributing to poor air quality…”

 So, while some groups continue to chase headlines, North Carolina farmers will keep doing what we’ve always done: raising healthy animals, feeding families, and protecting the land we live on. That’s the real story.

Ripe for attack: When it comes to hog farms, nothing can appease an activist on a mission.

No matter what North Carolina hog farmers do to improve their operations, there is always an activist group eager to attack them.

Take renewable natural gas, for example.

More and more North Carolina hog farmers are interested in covering their lagoons, capturing methane emissions, and generating renewable natural gas. The benefits are immense. Aside from the environmental benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and generating clean energy, the covered lagoons reduce odor and minimize the potential for flooding during hurricanes.

Sounds incredibly positive, right?

Food & Water Watch just posted an article — Shit Storms: Factory Farm Pollution, Hurricanes, and Climate Change — arguing that hog farms are “a driving force” behind climate change. It points to our farms as a major source of methane emissions, saying it leads to intense hurricanes that flood hog lagoons and cause water pollution.

Now, we can argue the facts around hurricanes and hog farms (read the truth of the matter here), but the reality is that renewable natural gas projects address the article’s two main points of concern: the potential flooding of lagoons from hurricanes, and the impact of methane emissions from animal agriculture on climate change.

But hold on… here comes another attack from the Sierra Club.

A recent story in Sierra magazine criticizes North Carolina hog farms for — wait for it — “ramping up efforts to convert methane from swine waste into biogas.”

The 3,500-word article — A biogas boondoggle — accuses the pork industry of using renewable natural gas projects to “greenwash” its image. In other words, these biogas projects on hog farms aren’t really environmentally friendly…

Except they are.

The EPA says that methane emissions are 28 times more potent that carbon dioxide, so there’s clearly a value in capturing these gases on farms and converting that gas into renewable energy that can be used to power homes.

If you’re concerned about climate change, this is clearly a positive development.

And the benefits to the local community — in the form of reducing odors and minimizing the potential for flooding during hurricanes — are equally valuable to the people who live near hog farms. (Learn more here about the value of renewable natural gas projects.)

No one really expects groups like the Sierra Club or Food & Water Watch to present a balanced view of these issues. But when you read these two articles back to back, it simply defies logic.

These activists plead with farms: Stop lagoons from flooding during hurricanes! Reduce methane emissions that contribute to climate change!

Then, when farmers make improvements that address those two concerns, they launch another attack.

 Don’t do it that way! Renewable natural gas is bad!

There’s no winning with these folks. Which is why we’re simply going to keep our heads down and continue doing what we do best: providing Americans with safe, affordable food that’s raised responsibly and sustainably.

Waterkeepers say hog farms not the problem in recent survey

Breaking News: We agree with the Waterkeepers!

No, we didn't stutter. In a recent survey conducted by the Coastal Carolina Riverwatch and contracted with ECU's Center for Survey Research, an overwhelming amount of respondents were positive about living within 5 miles of industrial farms. The majority of respondents said:

• Air quality was excellent

• Rarely noticed odors

• Farms (CAFOs) had no impact on air quality

• Farms (CAFOs) had no impact to water quality

On the whole, the Waterkeeper’s opinions about our farm families don’t match the opinions of local, everyday people. We wanted to highlight the true picture of communities and hog farms in North Carolina. This is also a great example of how groups make mountains out of mole hills. Activists like the Waterkeepers often are very loud, but small in number. They are also unwavering in their ambitions to eliminate animal agriculture.

Link to survey