North Carolina's Smithfield Agreement Fails to Resolve Hog Pollution Crisis After 25 Years
After 25 years, the Smithfield Agreement, a pact intended to address environmental damage from hog farming in North Carolina, is concluding without having resolved the core issues of pollution. Negotiated in 2000 by then-Attorney General Mike Easley with Smithfield Foods, the agreement aimed to replace the environmentally harmful lagoon and sprayfield system for managing hog waste with 'environmentally superior technologies' (ESTs). Despite a $15 million investment in research and the development of viable ESTs, Smithfield Foods ultimately deemed these technologies not 'economically feasible' and did not implement them on its corporate-owned or contract farms. As a result, communities near concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), predominantly Black or low-income, continue to suffer from air and water pollution, including odors, pathogens, and increased health risks such as asthma and cardiovascular illness. The agreement's grant-making component, which funded environmental projects, has also faced ... 
