There's a Special Place in Hell for a General Assembly that Encourages Giant Pork Corporations Spraying Pig Shit on Their Neighbors

Indebted to Jeffrey C. Billman for bringing us up to date on a new North Carolina Farm Bill, now moving through the Republican Senate in Raleigh:

...among other things, [it] carves out even more special protections for multibillion-dollar pork producers. Following a law passed last year that restricted the amount of money neighbors of hog farms can recoup in nuisance lawsuits — industry advocates tried but failed to make it retroactive, which would have negated more than two dozen pending cases against Smithfield Foods — this year's Farm Bill redefines the word nuisance itself.

If it becomes law, agricultural operations can't be sued for causing nuisances if they follow practices, methods, or procedures "generally accepted and routinely utilized by other agricultural and forestry operations in [the] region."

Translation: If everyone does it, it must be okay. (It's also okay with Republicans because it's mainly poor blacks who are suffering.

Wanna know what an environmental nuisance is? It was summed up by the headline in The Guardian: "A Million Tons of Feces and an Unbearable Stench: Life Near Industrial Pig Farms."

Wanna know what another environmental nuisance catastrophe is? Take a look at the power-mad and corrupt boy's club in Raleigh (President: Phil Berger; Vice-President in Charge of Sitting by the Door: Tim Moore) and what they've done -- or tried to do until stopped by judges -- since 2013.

Waterkeeper Alliance