The Scoop on Pig Poop

Can you tell that I am very passionate about factory farming issues? As a final paper in school I profiled Smithfield Foods and their hog operations in North Carolina. Iowa is the largest hog producing state followed closely by North Carolina. However, there are factory farms distributed throughout the country (even NY!) Check out this map to see the distribution of farms.
There are many environmental issues that arise from factory farming. These farms produce massive amounts of manure, which isn't usually only manure. Many things can be found in the "manure", such as antibiotics and dead pigs. It is stored in lagoons that are now required to have polyethylene liners. However, these lagoons leak and become flooded during storms. To lower the lagoon levels, many farmers will spray the manure on adjacent fields as "fertilizer". I am no farmer, but I am pretty sure raw sewage does not a fertilizer make. It needs to be treated and manufactured into a usable fertilizer. Additionally, the adjacent fields are usually fallow, so they just become manure fields. As a result of these poor practices, many of the local groundwater supplies and rivers become contaminated by the toxic runoff. In 1991, ONE BILLION fish were killed in the Neuse River in North Carolina, by pfiesteria, an organism that feeds off nitrogen and phosphorous found in manure.

Apparently, manure spraying is not the only crop and water contaminant. Ethicurean has run a short story about the use of untreated wastewater from fruit and vegetable processing. Who knew?