Chronological order, oldest to newest.
The Vanishing Act (Food & Environment Reporting Network, August 2019)
After years of burying complaints about hog-farm pollution, North Carolina officials began posting them online. What changed? (Also published in The Guardian and McClatchy North Carolina papers.)
Raising a Stink (Food & Environment Reporting Network, December 2019)
Rural North Carolinians sued the world’s largest hog producer over waste and odors, and won. Will the judgments hold up on appeal? (Also published in The Nation.) Plus, 2020 reports from the Fourth Court’s hearing and decision, and a remembrance of activist Elsie Herring, who died in 2021.
20 Years of Hell (Indy Week, January 2020)
A hog-farm neighbor awaits his chance at justice.
“Nobody Wants Another Flint, Michigan” (Food & Environment Reporting Network, January 2020)
At the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Smithfield Foods receives a sharp lecture from the bench about environmental justice and economic fairness.
Smithfield Settles Suits Over North Carolina Farms (Food & Environment Reporting Network, November 2020)
The announcement came immediately after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a call from the world’s largest pork producer for a retrial in a lower court case it had lost.
North Carolina advocate who successfully fought hog industry dies (Food & Environment Reporting Network, May 2021)
In a region where complaining about industrial swine farms rations was considered risky and futile, Elsie Herring confronted the industry over its pollution for more than two decades.
EPA to investigate North Carolina biogas (Food & Environment Reporting Network, January 2022)
The feds will investigate whether state regulators discriminated against communities of color when they approved four applications to convert hog waste into fuel.
The Great Biogas Boondoggle (Sierra magazine, June 2023)
North Carolina’s hog industry is jumping on the renewable energy bandwagon. Produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network.