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SC
Farm Bureau Encouraged “Last
night’s decision by the SC DHEC Board to reconsider the
proposed hog farm regulations is a step closer to policy
makers basing their decisions on sound science rather than
basing them on emotions alone,” according to SC Farm Bureau
Federation President David Winkles. “While we
appreciate the board’s decision to recognize medium-size hog
farms, we still believe that these tough regulations will keep
many young family farmers from the ability to expand their
farms as their operations succeed,” Winkles said. So much of
the rhetoric about the future of hog farms in South Carolina
has been based on misinformation and unsubstantiated fear over
perceived conditions in North Carolina. North
Carolina has strong environmental regulations.
Their twice-a-year inspection requirements have yielded
no evidence of the pollution from swine operations that one
often hears in public meetings.
A recent year’s statewide inspection summary in North
Carolina documented that of over 6,000 inspections of animal
operations, only 2.4% of the total possible violations
occurred, most were for paper work violations. North
Carolina’s hog population is almost 35 times larger than the
hog population in South Carolina.
South Carolina simply doesn’t have enough landmass to
support that number of hogs. The facts
remain that regulations approved in 1998 have been effective.
South Carolina has 290,000 hogs versus 10 million in NC. South
Carolina has never sited a facility in a flood plain. We have
never had a problem with lagoon over-flow.
SCFB believes in the right to farm, but not in the
right to pollute. Family
farmers in South Carolina have the right to earn a living, to
support their families and to contribute to their
communities’ economies. Last night’s decision by the DHEC Board
to revise its standing on proposed hog farm regulations will
help assure passage of the regulations by the General
Assembly.
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