INDYWeek’s Hogwashed Part 3

I saw firsthand in North Carolina how corporate interests are disproportionately placing environmental and public health burdens on low-income communities of color that they would never accept in their own neighborhoods. In North Carolina, large corporate pork producers are mistreating small contract farmers and externalizing their costs onto vulnerable communities, polluting the air, water, and soil, and making kids and families sick while reaping large financial rewards.                                                  -U.S. Senator Cory Booker (NJ-D)

Before the farmer stormed off, Watson says, he told her, “Just remember, I am a damn Democrat, and you must be just a nigger lover.”

“It said, ‘If you don’t back off this hog situation and if you run any more legislation, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You might find yourself in that Cape Fear River floating facedown.”                -former NC State Rep. Cindy Watson (Duplin, R)

Part 3 discusses ways to make the multibillion-dollar hog industry more sustainable, both for the environment and the state’s rural population, and the political and financial reasons those steps have not been taken.  Read the full story HERE.