The Schmidt Foundation was founded by a Silicon Valley billionaire and his wife. Doug Bock Clark, who spent three years living with a tribe of ‘hunter-gatherers’ on an Indonesian island, is a young free-lance journalist. And Rolling Stone, for five decades, has been the herald of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.’One wanted a story published knocking modern agriculture, one wanted a grant, one was happy to publish a story it got for free, and when their paths crossed it led to an odd headline: Why China is Treating North Carolina Like the Developing World?
And the answer to their question was: Hogs.Here’s how it happened: The Schmidt Foundation gave a grant to the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Journalism. UC-Berkeley then gave a grant to Clark.Clark, it appears, went on the internet, read all the stories he could find critical of hog farmers then had a revelation: China was out to get its hands on North Carolina’s hogs, and, to do that, it was treating North Carolina like a third world country.If Clark’s vision leaves you puzzled, when you look deeper it gets more puzzling.China raises more hogs than any nation on earth. It raises 96% of the pork its people eat. And imports just 4%. How much of China’s pork comes from North Carolina? Something like one-tenth of one percent. Germany sells more pork to China than America. And America sells more pork to Mexico than to China.Here’s another slip: Clark reported that Duplin County raises more hogs than any other county in the United States. But he was wrong. It doesn’t. How did a journalist with a grant from a wealthy foundation make a silly mistake like that?Clark described seeing six hog barns made of metal. But the barns he saw weren’t metal – they were made of wood. How could he mistake wood for metal?In one breath, Clark described a lady telling him she believed the odor from a hog farm near her home killed her nephew and, in another breath, he said the same nephew had died of cancer.He reported hog waste is “potentially lethal” and that “people die with distressing regularity in the waste.” And he reported that hog farming is a $2.9 billion industry that provides 46,000 jobs in North Carolina – but that led him to another odd conclusion: “The overall economic benefits of hog farming,” he said, “have actually been relatively small.”When their paths crossed the Schmidt Foundation, the journalist, and the rock ‘n’ roll magazine each got what they wanted. What did it lead to? They spun an odd tale then moved on and left everyone else to pick up the pieces.
One Farmer's Story
in News Article
Last summer, the Bladen Journal wrote a story about Hilton Monroe who, along with his wife, raises hogs on his sixty-six acre farm near Clarkton.The reporter described how he and Monroe drove down a dirt road that wound through a forest and stopped by two hog houses – then wrote:
Upon stepping out of the vehicle, the first thing one might notice is the absence of something – an aroma. There was no odor. Of any kind. None. “People think hog houses really, smell, and I’m not trying to paint a pretty picture or say they don’t because they do, but not nearly as much as people think,” Monroe said. Even standing on the shore of the lagoon while Monroe took a water sample – which he’s required to do every 120 days to check the nitrogen level – there was no observable odor. Monroe explained that the plastic curtains lining the hog houses serve multiple functions, one of which is to contain any odor pollution. “I’ve been farming all my life, and I’ve never had a complaint from my closest neighbors,” he said, adding that people have even built houses on the other side of the trees that line the whole operation.
Next the reporter asked Monroe about the state regulations hog farmers deal with – then wrote:
The water samples and the plastic curtains are just two items in a long list of regulations to which Monroe must adhere. The houses must remain around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (give or take, depending on the hog’s size), and the temperature must be recorded on charts. The lagoon can never top a certain height or contain too much nitrogen. Spraying can only be done when the temperature and humidity are just right, and never within four days of a hurricane. A certain amount of acreage must be sprayed for every hog. No steroids to make hogs grow faster. And on and on. “I think regulations are a good thing – I think we should have them, and other hog farmers I know feel the same way, and we do our best to abide by the regulations,” he added. “If you’re going to be a hog farmer, you have to take care of the environment.”
The article ends with a simple question – the reporter asked Monroe why he’s a farmer: “I’m just a drop in the bucket helping to feed the world,” Hilton said. “It makes me feel good to know somebody, somewhere has food because of what I do.”
Pardon me, your bias is showing
With the selective use of facts — and a 23-year-old photograph — the Lower Neuse Riverkeeper and The News & Observer editorial board painted a false picture of North Carolina’s hog farmers (“Self-reporting of hog lagoon spills not enough,” Feb. 14.)Here are the facts that were left out — and the story behind the photo published by The N&O.On Feb. 11, The Wilmington Star-News reported that there were 136 sanitary sewer overflows into the waterways of an eight-county region in Eastern North Carolina over the past two years. The spills came from municipal and county sewer systems.Three days before, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality announced it was fining a Jones County swine farm for a spill into a nearby wooded area. DEQ said the spill had “no reported impacts to public water supplies.”One farm spill, and 136 municipal sewer spills in an eight-county region.So, who did the Riverkeeper and The N&O attack? The farmer, of course.I say “of course” because North Carolina Farm Families has documented these attacks on hog farmers for many years on our website (www.ncfarmfamilies.com).
We also were curious about the photo that accompanied the attack. The caption read: “An aerial view of a hog farm operation located next to the Trent River, near New Bern. The large algae growth in the foreground is a result of the runoff from the hog farm into the river, so says the Neuse River Foundation.”*We did some digging and learned that the photo was taken in 1995. (Yes, The N&O used a 23-year-old photograph to illustrate an attack on hog farmers in 2018. And the farm shown in their photo hasn’t had barns or animals on it in more than a decade.)Now, The N&O won a Pulitzer Prize in the 1990s for reporting on problems in the hog industry. We readily admit there were problems then, when our industry was growing rapidly as farmers started raising hogs to replace crops like tobacco.But a lot has changed in the 23 years since that photograph was taken. North Carolina has enacted some of the nation’s toughest regulations for hog farms. Farmers must comply with strict agronomic rules governing how they apply manure, a natural fertilizer, to their crops.Here’s something else that most people don’t know — and the Riverkeeper didn’t mention: There has been a moratorium on new hog farms in North Carolina for the last 20 years.Let us be clear: We aren’t trying to diminish the seriousness of the spill that occurred on that Jones County farm. Hog farmers have a long history of complying with the state’s stringent environmental regulations. When those regulations are violated, the farmer must be held accountable and quick action must be taken to resolve the issue.We share the North Carolina Pork Council’s disappointment with what happened at the Lanier farm and believe the state’s actions are warranted. After the spill, all animals were removed from the farm and the farmer was placed on probation by the company he contracts with for failing to comply with state regulations.When violations occur, we take them seriously. But the farm spill in Jones County was an isolated incident — especially when compared to, say, the 136 municipal sewer spills that occurred in eight counties in Eastern North Carolina over the past two years.By now, we shouldn’t be surprised by attacks on farmers that make selective use of facts — and photographs. We’ve come to realize that groups like the Riverkeeper have a political agenda. They don’t care how their attacks hurt honest, hard-working farmers.North Carolina’s family farmers deserve better. We care about the environment, our neighbors and the communities where we live. Hog farmers are a vital part of the North Carolina economy, providing 46,000 jobs in North Carolina and producing safe, healthy food that feeds millions of Americans each year.*After the NC Pork Council contacted the N&O, the caption of the farm photo was changed to: "An aerial view of a hog farm operation located next to the Trent River, near New Bern, in 1995. The large alage growth in the foreground is a result of the runoff from the hog farm into the river, said the Neuse River Foundation. The site is no longer a hog farm."