The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has been making
headlines for months. But environmental destruction and limited government
oversight have placed more than the residents of Flint at risk.
A recent article by Civil
Eats sheds light on the serious impact of pig farms on local water
sources and residents in impoverished rural North Carolina:
Now a group of citizens is claiming that the state’s $3 billion pork industry is disposing of its waste in a manner that disproportionately and negatively affects residents of color, and that the negotiating efforts are being stalled by the pork industry.… Black, Latino, and Native American people are disproportionately impacted, because they live in these areas where the hog operations are. The impacts are everything from the stench of the operation to the water impacts, to having your house, your clothes, your car, everything sprayed with this waste.
Unfortunately, these complaints aren’t anything new.
Just last year, 500
residents in eastern North Carolina filed suit against the pork production
arm of Smithfield Foods, which they claim has subjected them to nearly
unlivable conditions.
But it’s not just pig farms. Regulatory changes in North
Carolina also allow poultry farms to operate in residential areas, causing
major problems, including horrible smells, for nearby communities.
At its core, this is a fight against environmental injustice
and the disproportionate effects of factory farms on communities of color.
Take a look at this shocking drone footage of pork
facilities in North Carolina:
Factory farmers demonstrate blatant disregard not only for surrounding
communities but also for the animals they raise like meat-producing machines.
Undercover investigations at hog farms around the country have
revealed a culture
of cruelty: animals intensively confined, painfully mutilated, and brutally
slaughtered.
Take a stand for people and animals by leaving meat and other
animal products off your plate. Get your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide here.
*Photo by FactoryFarmDrones.com