Bailey Hill, Environmental Justice Advocate
“The Smell of Money” is a documentary directed by Shawn Bannon that highlights the dismal reality of life in eastern North Carolina’s hog country. The late Elsie Herring of Wallace, NC lived beside one of Duplin County’s many industrial hog farms. In 1985 Smithfield constructed a concentrated animal feeding operation (referred to as a CAFO) on her family’s land which was purchased by her grandfather during post-Civil War reconstruction. The film begins with her story.
René Miller of Warsaw, NC is also featured. At first, the worst part of having a hog CAFO as a neighbor was living in view of numerous piles of hog carcasses and being woken up in the middle of the night by the large trucks hauling mature hogs away to the slaughterhouse. Then, the sprayers were turned on. Miller lives across the street from a crop field that is fertilized by untreated hog waste. When the large open “lagoon” containing a slurry of hog waste is full, it’s time to fertilize the crops by spraying the mixture of urine and poop across the entire field.
Hog waste “lagoon” — Photo courtesy of Waterkeepers Carolina
It isn’t merely the all-consuming smell of hog fecal matter that plagues residents in Eastern North Carolina, it’s also the fact that residents are inhaling tiny fecal particles just by opening their front doors. This is a perfectly legal way to dispose of the excessive waste produced by the state’s nearly 9 million hogs(“Industrial Animal Ag…”)—an overwhelming majority of which live in the 3 eastern NC counties of Duplin, Sampson, and Robeson. Between 2012 and 2019, the estimated number of chickens and turkeys in these counties alone rose 36%, from 83 million to 113 million (Exposing Fields of Filth), further increasing the burden of CAFO-related illness within these communities.
Untreated hog waste sprayed onto field - Photo courtesy of Waterkeeper Alliance
There is an overwhelming concentration of toxic fumes present in large quantities of hog waste, most notably, hydrogen sulfide. In 2012, Brandon Taylor was overcome by fumes emitting from the slurry of hog waste inside of a tanker at the Smithfield Packing Plant in Clinton, NC. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health said he was working the night shift, cleaning out a waste tanker, when he lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. He was found later, lifeless, with his head inside of the opening to the waste tanker.
Despite a massive effort from over 500 plaintiffs to hold Smithfield accountable for their actions, the regulations for “proper” disposal of hog waste remain the same. A report compiled by Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Waterkeeper Alliance in 2020 showed that eastern North Carolina residents are especially vulnerable to negative health outcomes resulting from CAFO pollution and that a greater percentage of Black, Latino, and Native Americans suffer harm. This is not new information—it is a confirmation that environmental injustice continues to plague the residents of eastern North Carolina.
In the 1990’s, the late Dr. Steve Wing from UNC School of Public Health conducted research on the correlation between the placement of hog CAFOs in eastern NC and their proximity to communities of color. Using historical data analysis and GIS mapping, he generated a map containing the location of Hog CAFOs on top of a map showing the population of formerly enslaved people. The correlation was shocking. Dr. Wing continued his research, delving into the health effects and environmental injustice caused by the hog industry. In 2000, he published an article with epidemiologist Dr. Dana Cole and Gary Grant of Concerned Citizens of Tillery that raised concerns about the disproportionate impact of hog CAFOs on lower-income communities of color.
While awareness for environmental injustice has continued to grow over the last few decades, the fight for justice remains an uphill battle for many marginalized communities. Dr. Courtney Woods of UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health is also featured in “The Smell of Money.” She explains that the work of Dr. Wing in the 1990’s and early 2000’s was influential in propelling the fight against environmental racism. Even with this increase in momentum there is a long road ahead to repairing the damages faced by so many on behalf of corporate greed.
CAFOs are located across the entire state of North Carolina. Hogs, cows, and chickens are the primary inhabitants of these operations that first arose mid-century due to Americans’ increasing appetite for fast, affordable meat. The small family farms that once dotted the landscape of rural America gradually succumbed to the corporate giants of Smithfield, Tyson, and Purdue. Farmers that raised 50 chickens, 10 cows, and maybe a couple dozen hogs were—and still are—competing with industrial meat suppliers who contractually own hundreds of millions of animals awaiting slaughter.
Screenshot of interactive map showing the locations of hog (red) and poultry (purple) CAFOs across NC
In memory of Elsie and on behalf of others who have passed on as a result of health complications related to environmental pollution, we at Yadkin Riverkeeper implore residents to take action to prevent these injustices from continuing to plague our state. If you would like to learn more about the fight for justice in Eastern NC and the growing concerns regarding poultry CAFOs across North Carolina, including those within the Yadkin River Basin, check out the following resources:
“Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial” written by Corban Addison, 2022
“The Smell of Money” Directed by Shawn Bannon, 2022