According to the Times-News , North Carolina lawmakers are taking steps to protect factory farmers from lawsuits that accuse them of pollution and causing neighbors to get sick.





The average pig farm in North Carolina houses 4,000 animals and produces nearly 10 billion gallons of feces and urine each year. That’s enough to fill 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools . Pig farming is so popular in North Carolina that there are almost as many pigs as people in the state.





The waste is stored in large open-air lagoons that turn “Pepto-Bismol” pink from bacteria. Farmers occasionally apply the fecal mixture to “sprayfields” with high-pressure guns to prevent the lagoons from overflowing.





A lawsuit brought by about 500 neighbors of massive North Carolina hog farms alleges that the wind-driven spray coats their homes’ exteriors, permeates their clothing with an intense odor, draws clouds of flies, and causes severe headaches.





Now state legislators have proposed a bill to limit penalties a jury or judge can impose. Representative Jimmy Dixon, a former pig and turkey farmer, claims malodorous swine smells are rare. The Times-News reports:

He blamed the latest legal attack against the industry’s disposal methods on money-grubbing lawyers looking for a big payday, academics, urbanites and animal-rights activists who “hear these squeaking wheels that want to put us out of business.”

This dangerous legislation puts meat industry profits ahead of the people of North Carolina.





What’s more, these facilities are built near low-income communities and communities of color . Last summer, the Environmental Working Group released a collection of maps and data revealing that the environmental cost of North Carolina’s 6,500 factory farms disproportionately affects vulnerable communities. Unable to afford to move, these residents are often left with no options.





Take a look at this shocking drone footage of pork facilities in North Carolina:









Pork producers not only blatantly disregard surrounding communities but also treat animals like meat-producing machines.





Undercover investigations at hog farms around the country have exposed a culture of cruelty : animals subjected to extreme confinement, excruciating mutilations without painkillers, and ruthless slaughter.



