North Carolina Hog Farming & Water Quality: Time Series Analysis Fails to Reveal Significant Impacts

Starting in the 1980s and continuing on through the mid-1990s, North Carolina's swine industry underwent a significant and rapid expansion.  This growth was driven by the vertical integration of the livestock industry, coordinating the various aspects of swine raising and slaughtering via a contracting company.  Central to this expansion are confinemnent systems of hog rearing and raising.  The animals are raised indoors, the environment is controlled and the wastes collected, stored, and applied to cropland as a fertilizer.