Dear Fayetteville Observer, You Fell For the Spin

‘American Rivers’ dangled a bit of bait in a press release and the Fayetteville Observer swallowed it hook, line and sinker.Consider this: ‘American Rivers’ – and even the Waterkeepers Alliance – agree the Cape Fear River is safe for swimming, fishing and kayaking. But, at the same time, American Rivers claims the Cape Fear is one of the ten “Most-Endangered Rivers in America.” So, is the Cape Fear safe for swimming? Or is it one of the ten most polluted rivers? You might have expected the Observer to ask that question. And, if it had, American Rivers would have explained – as it candidly admitted when others asked – that its broadside about the Cape Fear wasn’t based on science. Or a scientific report. It was based on American Rivers’ political agenda.American Rivers’ press release was simple: It attacked farmers, talked about farms in flood plains, then threw in the words ‘Most Endangered Rivers’ and the Fayetteville Observer fell for the spin.Here’s a fact from North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality: During Hurricane Matthew, 99.5% of the hog farms didn’t overflow or have spills – while sewage plants spilled 63 million gallons of raw waste into rivers and streams.It’s no surprise ‘American Rivers’ left that fact out of its press release. Unfortunately, so did the Fayetteville Observer.

Lawyers, Hog Farmers, & Elsie Herring's Story

Stepping to the microphone, Mrs. Elsie Herring – a Community Organizer for the Environmental Justice Network in Duplin County – explained to the reporters at the press conference why she opposed House Bill 467. Mrs. Herring repeated the same charges she’d made for years: She said a farmer sprays hog waste eight feet from her house. She’s also said, in interviews, she lives as a prisoner in her own home – that she can’t go outside because of the smell.

It’s a horror story. But is it true?

Is a hog farmer actually spraying waste eight feet from Elsie Herring’s house?

Details of Elsie Herring’s Story

Here’s a photo of Mrs. Herring’s house:

Elsie Herring’s House

From her house, you can’t even see the farmer’s field. It’s on the far side of the trees.

Here’s another photo – an aerial photo – of Mrs. Herring’s house, the trees, and the farmer’s field on the far side of the trees. The farmer’s field where he sprays is 900 feet* – not eight feet – from Mrs. Herring’s house. The field closest to Ms. Herring’s house is 200 feet from her house, but has not been sprayed in 3 years. State law says no farmer can spray within 200 feet of a neighbor’s house.

Aerial photo

And here’s a photo Mrs. Herring, interviewing with another reporter, saying she’s a prisoner in her own house – while sitting on her front porch. Outside.

Elsie Herring interview

The Truth About NC Hog Farmers

By law, every hog farmer must file a record with the state every time he sprays.Four years ago, out-of-state lawyers – who saw hog farms as ripe targets for an unusual type of lawsuit – came to eastern North Carolina and went to work, going door to door, signing up clients.

They said: We’ll bring the suits, we’ll pay the bills, and, if we win, we’ll split the money. Elsie Herring was one of the people who signed up.

On the internet, the debate over House Bill 467 has turned into a political brawl with half-true and untrue charges flying. What House Bill 467 actually does is simple – and here’s why it will make a difference: This legislation will protect family farmers from lawsuits by predatory lawyers.

*This distance has been updated to reflect a more current situation.

A Response to Sierra Club's, "Hog Hell"

Meet Adam Skolnick  He’s a freelance writer from California. He didn’t study journalism but loved to travel, so he decided to “write my way around the world.”

 His travels recently brought him to Duplin County to write about North Carolina hog farms for the Sierra Club magazine. Most trips like this require a knowledgeable tour guide who knows the lay of the land, and that’s where poor Adam made his first mistake.

Rather than talk to a hog farmer or perhaps a professor of agriculture at NC State, Adam asked the Cape Fear Riverkeeper to be his guide. And when you rely on a guide with a knack for distorting the truth, you end up with an article that gets even the most basic facts wrong.

 In the very first paragraph, Skolnick describes the Duplin County landscape, including barns “built tall for drying tobacco, which along with rice… used to blanket this rich earth.”

 Huh? No one has grown rice in North Carolina since the 1800’s. Even then, it wasn’t much - and it certainly wasn’t grown in Duplin County.

 Adam Skolnick had made a mistake – and he was about to make another.

 He wrote that Smithfield Foods was once a “U.K.-Owned” company. But Smithfield Foods is located in Virginia, not England. It’s never been British owned.

 The blunders continued to pile up.

 He interviewed a local resident and listened to her explain that she never goes outside anymore because of the odor from nearby hog farms. It never occurred to him he was interviewing her on her front porch. Outside.

 He showed a hog farm in a video, then showed a sewage pipe spilling pollution into a stream. But the pipe had nothing to do with the hog farm. It wasn’t even on the farm.

 He wrote about odors from hog farms causing asthma, but official health reports show asthma rates in Duplin County are declining.

 And, of course, he repeated the Waterkeepers’ tale about hog lagoons failing during Hurricane Matthew. He never mentioned, if he even knew it, that more than 99.5% of the state’s lagoons had no leaks or spills.

 Adam Skolnick may have meant no harm. But he didn’t check the facts. And he fell for the Waterkeepers’ mantra about the evils of hog farming hook, line and sinker. Unfortunately, the Sierra Club magazine published it all.