What do you think?
Rate this book
Raising a Stink: The Struggle over Factory Hog Farms in Nebraska
In Nebraska, as in many states across the nation, factory farms housing tens of thousands of hogs have altered the physical, cultural, and economic landscape, and have generated complex and deeply divisive conflicts among family farmers, environmentalists, agribusinesses, and elected officials. A reporter long familiar with the controversy, Carolyn Johnsen draws on a wealth of interviews, archival material, and her own extensive experience as a journalist to present a timely, informative, and balanced account of this complicated and troubling agricultural practice—and to put a human face on its causes and consequences.
Here everyone has a farmers and neighbors suffering from proximity to the factory hog farms; pork producers adopting the latest hog confinement technology in the face of fierce opposition; politicians attempting to interpret the “science” and shape public policy in a maelstrom. The result is the story of a struggle for the heart and soul of rural America.
Here everyone has a farmers and neighbors suffering from proximity to the factory hog farms; pork producers adopting the latest hog confinement technology in the face of fierce opposition; politicians attempting to interpret the “science” and shape public policy in a maelstrom. The result is the story of a struggle for the heart and soul of rural America.
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 9, 2003
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
June 24, 2026
A JOURNALIST LOOKS AT VARIOUS ISSUES THAT HAVE ARISEN IN NEBRASKA
Carolyn Johnsen (b. 1944) is a reporter and producer for Nebraska Public Radio Network, who also taught journalism at the University of Nebraska until her retirement.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2003 book, “Between 1997 and 2000 I wrote more than 100 stories on the controversy over mega-hog farms. It became clear to me that there was much more to the story than was possible to tell in ten or a hundred five-minute radio reports. This book is the result of my desire to know more than I could learn under the pressure of a daily deadline. I also wanted to create a permanent record of a story that turns out not to be about an environmental catastrophe but about a struggle pitting property rights against the right to clean air and water, about rural people’s desire to protect their way of life from the impact of big pork producers seizing an opportunity for profit, and about policy makers coming to terms with the need to regulate one of the state’s most important economic sectors.” (Pg. ix-x)
She continues, “There are a number of things this book doesn’t do. Development in daily, poultry, and beef production parallel those in the swine industry. But because mega-hog farms created the controversy in Nebraska and because I had less than a year to write the book, I chose to focus only on hogs for this project. This book does nothing to explain federal farm policy or the farm program. Also, I’ve purposely avoided the debate over animal welfare because it would have detracted from the more important issues facing Nebraska. The daily press is doing a thorough job of covering the growing concern over the effects of antibiotic use in confined livestock, so I’ve only touched on that topic here.” (Pg. xi)
She adds, “a New York Times editorial framed the issues in this way: ‘The battle over hog factories is really a battle over the definition of farming and the legal consequences that follow from that definition.’ As this book goes to press, that battle continues nationwide; the legal consequences will be years in the making. The controversy is in flux, with new information almost daily. [This book] will lack some of that information, but the book wasn't intended to be as timely as today’s news. Instead, it is meant to provide a lasting record of the turmoil that engulfed many small communities in Nebraska at the turn of the millennium. Finally, I hope it encourages readers to consider the implications of where and how hogs are raised for the bacon, sausage, ham, and pork barbeque we eat.” (Pg. xii)
She states, “Mabel [a resident] is also concerned about how the waste from so many hogs---stored in vast earthen pits---will affect the groundwater if it seeps in and the surface water if it runs over… The Nebraska legislature has chosen not to regulate odor, leaving it up to the counties to limit the effect on citizens by imposing minimum distances between big livestock operations and their neighbors. Chase County has no authority over the [hog farm owners’] operation because it was built before the county adopted zoning regulations. But on the other side of the issue are hundreds of pork producers who see an opportunity for unprecedented profit by raising pigs in confinement. For them...[it] represents a natural step in the progress from wasteful subsistence methods of raising pigs to efficient modern methods.” (Pg. 3-4)
She reports, “The high tech processes involved in a big confinement operation don’t extend much past the pipe that takes the manure and urine to the waste pit---euphemistically called a ‘lagoon.’ An adult hog produces two to five times the amount of waste a human being produces. The 2,500 sows at P.C. West produce waste equivalent to that of a city of at least 7,500 people. Unlike human waste, which in cities is treated to remove pathogens and other pollutants, hog waste typically receives no treatment… the Environmental Protection Agency said that facilities with more than 2,500 hogs ‘produce quantities of manure that are a risk to water quality whether the facilities are well managed or not.’ The risks include runoff when the effluent is sprayed onto crops, emissions like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide that rise from the lagoon’s surface, leakage into groundwater, and overflows that contaminate surface water.” (Pg 6-7)
She notes, “Under pressure from environmentalists, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency began drafting new federal rules for livestock waste. The EPA … zeroed in on the concentrated feeding of livestock as a major concern. But concerns for the environment had no effect on consumer demand. In 1997 pork dominated more than 40% of the worldwide market for meat… Hog prices, which has fallen in 1994, were recovering and profits were again possible.” (Pg. 15)
She points out, “Diseases spread easily among thousands of animals crowded together… Confined swine are routinely dosed with antibiotics---both to suppress disease and to promote growth… In spite of the heavy use of antibiotics in swine herds, there is inevitably a daunting volume of dead pigs to deal with. A thousand-sow … farm typically produces about twenty tons of dead pigs a year. Safely disposing of so many carcasses has become a growing problem in the industry.” (Pg. 20)
She reports, “Most of those testifying at the hearings [before the Nebraska Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee] acknowledged the need to pump economic life into rural communities, but they differed dramatically on how to do it. In 1997 several towns were competing to become the site for a new state prison. [An] Omaha senator… asked [a hog farm owner] whether pork or prison would provide the most viable economic base… [He] answered, ‘Obviously I believe that the pork industry has much more to offer because it’s going to use all our natural resources.’” (Pg. 25)
She notes, “In 1997 at least 15 states were trying to come to terms with the environmental, economic, and social consequences of rapid growth in the hog confinement industry. To give policy makers time to consider how best to respond the trend, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference in December called for an immediate nationwide ‘moratorium on the expansion and building of new farm factories and … for a serious consideration of their replacement by sustainable agricultural systems which are environmentally safe, economically viable, and socially just.’ … [But] Big hog operators continued to break ground for new confinement units across the state.” (Pg. 27-28)
She states, “Counties have required manure management plans from livestock producers and have required them to apply for operating permits. The permitting process involves public hearings, giving local residents, a voice in the process. Local zoning hearings were often emotional as new pork producers moved into a community or as long-time farmers tried to expand their operations.” (Pg. 39)
She explains, “The expansion in hog production that occurred in Nebraska in the late 1990s was accompanied by promises of prosperity for communities that craved economic growth. For decades rural citizens and policymakers alike have mourned the loss of population in Nebraska’s rural counties and have sought ways to reverse the trend. Rather than being a solution for the problem, factor hog farms apparently contributed to it. There is a correlation between population loss and increased hog production; that is, in rural counties where hog production increases, population declines. One reason is that confinement feeding requires less human labor. It replaces workers with mechanization, resulting in the loss of two or three independent farmers for every confinement job created… Another likely cause of population loss is the devastating quality of neighbors’ lives that occurs when hog operations are poorly managed. Farm families are accustomed to occasional odor from livestock, but many have found unbearable the stench generated by thousands of hogs confined in a limited space.” (Pg. 81)
She reports, “While small hog farmers went out of business, big pork producers expanded, increasing neighborhood tension. Nebraska’s situation reflected national events. A national study found that confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, were controversial in at least 38 states. In 22 states, legislation to regulate CAFOs had been considered within the previous year. Swine generated the most controversy.” (Pg. 105)
She notes, “despite the uncertainties---the PA, the NDEQ, the Nebraska legislature, and policy-making bodies in most other agricultural states have concluded that some groundwater pollution from livestock waste lagoons is acceptable. And although levels of nitrate that exceed 10 ppm can cause health problems for infants and pregnant women, citizens may be somewhat indifferent to it because it’s invisible, odorless, and tasteless.” (Pg. 122)
She concludes, “The spread of large confinement operations is likely to continue---if not in Nebraska and not in the United States, then in places like Brazil and China where the demand for pork is the greatest. The question remains: Can hogs be raised by the thousands in confinement without destroying the natural resources upon which they depend… Whether economic forces will overwhelm the concern for the air and water and the quality of life in rural communities is at least part in the hands of people who eat pork and those whom they elect to do their will.” (Pg, 147)
This book will be of great interest to those studying the environmental effects of such large operations.
Carolyn Johnsen (b. 1944) is a reporter and producer for Nebraska Public Radio Network, who also taught journalism at the University of Nebraska until her retirement.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2003 book, “Between 1997 and 2000 I wrote more than 100 stories on the controversy over mega-hog farms. It became clear to me that there was much more to the story than was possible to tell in ten or a hundred five-minute radio reports. This book is the result of my desire to know more than I could learn under the pressure of a daily deadline. I also wanted to create a permanent record of a story that turns out not to be about an environmental catastrophe but about a struggle pitting property rights against the right to clean air and water, about rural people’s desire to protect their way of life from the impact of big pork producers seizing an opportunity for profit, and about policy makers coming to terms with the need to regulate one of the state’s most important economic sectors.” (Pg. ix-x)
She continues, “There are a number of things this book doesn’t do. Development in daily, poultry, and beef production parallel those in the swine industry. But because mega-hog farms created the controversy in Nebraska and because I had less than a year to write the book, I chose to focus only on hogs for this project. This book does nothing to explain federal farm policy or the farm program. Also, I’ve purposely avoided the debate over animal welfare because it would have detracted from the more important issues facing Nebraska. The daily press is doing a thorough job of covering the growing concern over the effects of antibiotic use in confined livestock, so I’ve only touched on that topic here.” (Pg. xi)
She adds, “a New York Times editorial framed the issues in this way: ‘The battle over hog factories is really a battle over the definition of farming and the legal consequences that follow from that definition.’ As this book goes to press, that battle continues nationwide; the legal consequences will be years in the making. The controversy is in flux, with new information almost daily. [This book] will lack some of that information, but the book wasn't intended to be as timely as today’s news. Instead, it is meant to provide a lasting record of the turmoil that engulfed many small communities in Nebraska at the turn of the millennium. Finally, I hope it encourages readers to consider the implications of where and how hogs are raised for the bacon, sausage, ham, and pork barbeque we eat.” (Pg. xii)
She states, “Mabel [a resident] is also concerned about how the waste from so many hogs---stored in vast earthen pits---will affect the groundwater if it seeps in and the surface water if it runs over… The Nebraska legislature has chosen not to regulate odor, leaving it up to the counties to limit the effect on citizens by imposing minimum distances between big livestock operations and their neighbors. Chase County has no authority over the [hog farm owners’] operation because it was built before the county adopted zoning regulations. But on the other side of the issue are hundreds of pork producers who see an opportunity for unprecedented profit by raising pigs in confinement. For them...[it] represents a natural step in the progress from wasteful subsistence methods of raising pigs to efficient modern methods.” (Pg. 3-4)
She reports, “The high tech processes involved in a big confinement operation don’t extend much past the pipe that takes the manure and urine to the waste pit---euphemistically called a ‘lagoon.’ An adult hog produces two to five times the amount of waste a human being produces. The 2,500 sows at P.C. West produce waste equivalent to that of a city of at least 7,500 people. Unlike human waste, which in cities is treated to remove pathogens and other pollutants, hog waste typically receives no treatment… the Environmental Protection Agency said that facilities with more than 2,500 hogs ‘produce quantities of manure that are a risk to water quality whether the facilities are well managed or not.’ The risks include runoff when the effluent is sprayed onto crops, emissions like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide that rise from the lagoon’s surface, leakage into groundwater, and overflows that contaminate surface water.” (Pg 6-7)
She notes, “Under pressure from environmentalists, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency began drafting new federal rules for livestock waste. The EPA … zeroed in on the concentrated feeding of livestock as a major concern. But concerns for the environment had no effect on consumer demand. In 1997 pork dominated more than 40% of the worldwide market for meat… Hog prices, which has fallen in 1994, were recovering and profits were again possible.” (Pg. 15)
She points out, “Diseases spread easily among thousands of animals crowded together… Confined swine are routinely dosed with antibiotics---both to suppress disease and to promote growth… In spite of the heavy use of antibiotics in swine herds, there is inevitably a daunting volume of dead pigs to deal with. A thousand-sow … farm typically produces about twenty tons of dead pigs a year. Safely disposing of so many carcasses has become a growing problem in the industry.” (Pg. 20)
She reports, “Most of those testifying at the hearings [before the Nebraska Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee] acknowledged the need to pump economic life into rural communities, but they differed dramatically on how to do it. In 1997 several towns were competing to become the site for a new state prison. [An] Omaha senator… asked [a hog farm owner] whether pork or prison would provide the most viable economic base… [He] answered, ‘Obviously I believe that the pork industry has much more to offer because it’s going to use all our natural resources.’” (Pg. 25)
She notes, “In 1997 at least 15 states were trying to come to terms with the environmental, economic, and social consequences of rapid growth in the hog confinement industry. To give policy makers time to consider how best to respond the trend, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference in December called for an immediate nationwide ‘moratorium on the expansion and building of new farm factories and … for a serious consideration of their replacement by sustainable agricultural systems which are environmentally safe, economically viable, and socially just.’ … [But] Big hog operators continued to break ground for new confinement units across the state.” (Pg. 27-28)
She states, “Counties have required manure management plans from livestock producers and have required them to apply for operating permits. The permitting process involves public hearings, giving local residents, a voice in the process. Local zoning hearings were often emotional as new pork producers moved into a community or as long-time farmers tried to expand their operations.” (Pg. 39)
She explains, “The expansion in hog production that occurred in Nebraska in the late 1990s was accompanied by promises of prosperity for communities that craved economic growth. For decades rural citizens and policymakers alike have mourned the loss of population in Nebraska’s rural counties and have sought ways to reverse the trend. Rather than being a solution for the problem, factor hog farms apparently contributed to it. There is a correlation between population loss and increased hog production; that is, in rural counties where hog production increases, population declines. One reason is that confinement feeding requires less human labor. It replaces workers with mechanization, resulting in the loss of two or three independent farmers for every confinement job created… Another likely cause of population loss is the devastating quality of neighbors’ lives that occurs when hog operations are poorly managed. Farm families are accustomed to occasional odor from livestock, but many have found unbearable the stench generated by thousands of hogs confined in a limited space.” (Pg. 81)
She reports, “While small hog farmers went out of business, big pork producers expanded, increasing neighborhood tension. Nebraska’s situation reflected national events. A national study found that confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, were controversial in at least 38 states. In 22 states, legislation to regulate CAFOs had been considered within the previous year. Swine generated the most controversy.” (Pg. 105)
She notes, “despite the uncertainties---the PA, the NDEQ, the Nebraska legislature, and policy-making bodies in most other agricultural states have concluded that some groundwater pollution from livestock waste lagoons is acceptable. And although levels of nitrate that exceed 10 ppm can cause health problems for infants and pregnant women, citizens may be somewhat indifferent to it because it’s invisible, odorless, and tasteless.” (Pg. 122)
She concludes, “The spread of large confinement operations is likely to continue---if not in Nebraska and not in the United States, then in places like Brazil and China where the demand for pork is the greatest. The question remains: Can hogs be raised by the thousands in confinement without destroying the natural resources upon which they depend… Whether economic forces will overwhelm the concern for the air and water and the quality of life in rural communities is at least part in the hands of people who eat pork and those whom they elect to do their will.” (Pg, 147)
This book will be of great interest to those studying the environmental effects of such large operations.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review