Controversial Hog Waste Bill Moves On In NC Senate

House Bill 467, capping the amount of compensation awarded to someone living by a farm, is moving on to the North Carolina Senate. The measure comes as the state's largest hog producer is facing legal challenges from neighbors who say their property value is being negatively impacted.

If the bill becomes law, it will be a boon to hog-producer Murphy-Brown, owned by Smithfield Foods. They're currently managing 26 pending lawsuits, impacting more than 500, predominantly African-Americans, who live within a mile of the farms.

UNC-Greensboro Professor and filmmaker Matthew Barr has encountered similar standoffs in the past. His documentary, Union Time: Fighting for Workers' Rights, follows the story of workers at the Smithfield Pork Processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, who fought for safe working conditions.

“I remember, six or seven years ago, filming a group of Waterkeeper Alliance members. They're people who are organizing the residents who had the misfortune of living near hog farms, and have to put up with the smells, the stench, all of that—who are almost invariably people of color. They had brought a group of protesters to the state capitol, and basically it was all about the issue of environmental racism.”

Barr says the bill's implications goes beyond hog waste. 

“It's all based on people not being able to fight back, and now of course with [House Bill] 467, they won't even be able to get any money out of them because of limits. It's pretty disgusting I must say,” says Barr.

Hog farmers say the protection measures in the bill are long overdue, shielding them from what they call excessive claims that threaten their livelihood.

North Carolina is the country's second-largest pork producing state, with approximately 360,000 people living within a half mile of a CAFO.

After passing the House, and its first reading in the Senate, the bill was referred to the Committee On Rules and Operations on April 11.