Kenneth Kephart
Associate Professor
of Animal Science
Pennsylvania State
University
July 21, 1998
Anyone connected to the pork
industry understands that our envi
ronmental image is dismal at best.
The distrust the public holds for
all of us, I think, stems from
three things. First, the vast ma
jority of people do not care much
for hogs. Second, every time a
mishap occurs with manure, peo
ple point to each incident with an
"I-told-you-so" attitude. Finally,
swine units are getting bigger,
which raises concerns and fears
among the neighboring folk,
mostly because of the first two
items mentioned.
Despite the pervasive criticism
against the pork industry, I have
often said, and still believe that
the worst is behind us if we stick
to the facts, and behave responsi
bly. But behaving responsibly
may have deeper implications than
some producers realize.
PUBLIC CONCERNS
Although many residents say
otherwise, odor probably ranks
first in the list of public concerns.
The sooner we find a solution to
manure odors, the sooner we'll
begin to improve our image.
Odors are generated every minute
of every day from any livestock
operation. The larger the opera
tion, the greater the intensity of
odors. If, most of the time,
neighbors find themselves in the
path of those odors, their life will
be affected.
The magnitude of the effect
depends on how often people no
tice the odor, their cultural back
ground and their feelings toward
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the livestock operation generating
the odor. Note that more and
more people in rural settings do
not have an agricultural back
ground. And as we've already
pointed out, people's feelings to
ward hog production is anything
but positive. Some people toler
ate it. Some complain. Some
get nauseated.
The other major concern is the
fate of our manure. As beneficial
as this substance has proven to
be, there is nothing livestock pro
ducers do that will impact the en
vironment as much as manure
disposal. If it's done right, ma
nure provides a rich source of nu
trients and enhances soil tilth.-
If manure is spread without re
gard to crop needs or soil fertility,
we can contribute to ground and
surface water pollution..
Beyond these two issues odor
and manure disposal there is a
long list of concerns. But 1 be
lieve that most of them would go
away once we master the first two
items. We don't have an effective
solution to manure odor yet. Un
til we do, location of large swine
facilities is critical. As to the ap
plication of manure, we already
know how to do that correctly,
and emerging technology will
continue to make it easier.
INDUSTRY EFFORTS
ON THE NATIONAL
FRONT
The National Pork Producers
Council (NPPC) is light years
ahead of all othef livestock indus
tries in their development of pro
active environmental programs.
The Environmental Assurance
Program, bom in 1995, was ex
panded in 1997 to include five
new components Pollution Pre
vention Strategies, Manure Stor-
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age and Treatment, Odor and
Emissions, Composting of Mor
tality, and Community Rela
tions. More recently, NPPC
launched the On Farm Odor Assis
tance Program to provide engi
neering expertise to producers to
help improve all aspects of envi
ronmental stewardship at the farm
level. (This program will begin
this fall in Pennsylvania this fall).
Funding for environmental re
search, including odor solutions,
has steadily increased over the
years. And most
NPPC recognizes the truth - if
we don't soon identify odor solu
tions, if we don't give manure
disposal the priority it deserves, if
we don't design and construct
swine facilities properly, the long
term viability of pork production
in this country is in trouble.
Shortly after NPPC released
their Environmental Assurance
Program, county agents and my
self began doing third-party envi
ronmental assessments of swine
operations. This on-farm program
provides the producer with an easy
to use framework for monitoring
and documenting the environ
mental integrity of the operation.
Producers scoring high in the pro
gram are considered "certified"
which can provide some help on
the public relations front.
The Pennsylvania Pork Pro
ducers Council has funded the pro
duction of a educational video
Some of the public concern re
sults from lack of knowledge or
the distortion of facts. The video
shows the public, without apol
ogy, how we produce pigs m this
state. We have in the last several
months, provided dozens of copies
of the video to township supervi
sors, planning officials, school
teachers and the general public.
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ings have been held across the
state. The meetings are usually
structured in a question and answer
format, with a panel of speakers
present to provide a range of ex
pertise. In all meetings, the in
tensity of concern is obvious, and
there are few if any minds that are
changed. But 1 am confident that
a lot of misconceptions are cleared
up, and people walk away with a
more realistic understanding of our
business.
Recently a group of people in
cluding producers, personnel from
Penn State and the University of
Pennsylvania, and representatives
from allied industry began writing
a Best Management Practices
Manual. The manual which is
specific and far-reaching, provides
a set of standards by which the
pork industry should operate in
Pennsylvania. Many public agen
cies, have already provided input
into the process. We expect to
publish the manual by late Sep
tember.
INCREASED REGULA-
TION
Farmers are used to some de
gree of regulation Now increased
regulation and scrutiny have be
come a part of life The bad news
is that most producers, for genera
tions, have been good stewards of
the land without someone looking
over their shoulder The good
news is that regulations do set the
rules. And as long as the producer
follows the rules, the public has
little room for complaint
State Senator Robert Jubilier
recently introduced a resolution
calling for the formation of an ad
visory committee to examine
Pennsylvania's livestock industry.
The committee has been selected,
and the first meeting will occur in
the next month or so. Among
other things, the committee will
be charged to review the Best
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 25, 1998-A33
Management Practices Manual
mentioned above.
Although this resolution has
received a lot of press, the poten
tial impact of the committee is
probably not as significant as
some would like to believe.
More important are the regula
tions which the Department of
Environmental Protection has
proposed for Pennsylvania Lan
caster Farming has published the
full text of the proposed regula
tions, which are written for all
livestock operations (Make no
mistake, however. Concerns over
swine production prompted these
efforts.) In this issue of Lancaster
Farming, we have provided an
easy-to-read summary of the regu
lations
The two categories of opera
tions that will be impacted most
by the regulations are
1. operations with more than
1000 animal units (CAFO's)
2 operations with 301 to
1,000 animal units which have
the potential to discharge to sur
face waters*
*Any operation that must
comply with the Nutrient Man
agement Act is considered to have
the potential to discharge For
most producers, this means hav
ing more than 2 animal units per
acre
Very briefly, if a new opera
tion is proposed to have more
than 1000 animal units, there, will
be a lot of expensive regulatory
hoops Even the smaller opera
tions (301-1000 animal units) that
must comply with the Nutrient
Management Act, must complete
a number of permits before con
struction can commence. If the
operation has 301-1000 animal
units and does not have to comply
with the Nutrient Management
Act, there are no additional regula
tions.
Kenneth B Kephart
Associate Professor
of Animal
Science
The Pennsylvania
Stale Uni-
versify
306 AS! Building
University Park, PA
I6BUZ
814-863-3671 (phone)
814-865-7442 (fax)
khk2@psit edu
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