North Carolina Hog Industry Fails to Adopt Environmentally Superior Waste Technologies Despite Agreement
North Carolina's hog industry, particularly Smithfield Foods, has failed to implement 'environmentally superior technologies' (ESTs) to manage hog waste, despite a 2000 agreement known as the Smithfield Agreement. This agreement, negotiated after environmental catastrophes caused by hurricanes in the 1990s, aimed to replace the primitive lagoon and sprayfield system for waste disposal. The ESTs, including one called Super Soils (later Terra Blue), were developed and proven to significantly reduce odors, pathogens, and air pollution by up to 99%. However, Smithfield Foods deemed these technologies not 'economically feasible,' a decision made despite an economic subcommittee's majority finding that the company could afford them. The existing system, which involves storing millions of gallons of hog waste in open cesspools and spraying it on fields, continues to cause significant environmental and public health issues for communities, predominantly Black or low-income, living near concentrated animal feeding ... 
