IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 4
inadequate enforcement of the Clean Water Act, facilities are still
polluting the water. Moreover, animal factories also leak pollutants
to the air. Over 400 volatile organic compounds have been found
in emissions from anaerobic hog lagoons. In North Carolina alone,
186 tons of ammonia a day are discharged from liquid animal
waste storages. Compared to the life-threatening and polluting
leakages from liquid manure storage and handling, the problems
with solid manure systems that use abundant grained-based
bedding are more manageable; the benefits to the environment are
unequivocal. The Environmental Protection Agency will be
addressing whether lagoons can continue to be used as it revises
the effluent guidelines for feedlots in the next two years.
3. Require manufactured covers on all existing liquid manure storage
structures and "scrubbers" over vents leaving hog buildings to help
control air pollution.
Rationale: Chopped straw covers and other ad hoc methods cannot
adequately control emissions of potentially dangerous volatile
organic compounds created in the anaerobic digestion of liquid
manure.
4. Support public education, empowerment, and the ability of
counties and township governments to exert local control over the
siting and behavior of hog factories.
Rationale: Across the nation, groups of citizens are organizing to
make hog factory owners liable for the damage they do to rural
quality of life and the environment. They need reliable information
concerning the hazards of hog factories and effective remedies.
They need legal assistance to help prevent the erosion of their
rights to health, enjoyment of property, and quality of life. They
also need financial support.
5. Call for and support policies that would provide financial
assistance to independent hog farmers switching from liquid
manure handling to solid manure handling using composting as a
treatment process.
Rationale: According to the Center for Rural Affairs, the single
most significant contribution to reduction in greenhouse gasses
that farms can make is to change manure management.
Compared to liquid manure, the number of gasses emitted by solid
manure handling systems is very few. Plants and trees easily take
up carbon dioxide. A high carbon/nitrogen ratio will prevent
ammonia volatilization. In the long run, adoption of solid manure
handling practices is the least costly and most effective odor- and
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