Funding to Support Farmers
As North Carolina's agriculture sector grows, our response to their impacts on our water should grow as well. Livestock farms of all sizes across the state can impact waterways. From large CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to smaller livestock operations raising cattle on pasture runoff of animal waste can increase bacteria like E. coli in our waterways, making it unsafe for swimming and negatively impacting aquatic and human life.
Waterkeepers Carolina member MountainTrue is just one of the organizations tracking agricultural impact on our environment by monitoring its region's water. They sample bacteria in the water weekly during the summer recreation season. Collecting and reporting this data keeps people safe. It also allows us to identify pollution levels and work to reduce the runoff waste that can damage our waterways in the long term.
To raise awareness, MountainTrue has created an interactive map of sustainable farms which operate their farms in an environmentally friendly way. With our encouragement, farms may take the step forward into sustainability.
Farmers need more than encouragement to make long-lasting change. To support this change, we must increase funding for soil and water cost-share programs to provide incentives, resources and best practices for farmers to follow so they can protect the water around them. Currently, the Agricultural Cost Share Program receives as much as $20 million in requests for only $4 million in annual funding across the state. By doubling that amount to $8 million, we can better meet our farmers' needs to protect our environment.
We can also encourage farmers to install livestock exclusion fencing and utilize alternative water sources if we provide the financial resources to support their efforts. A recurring fund from the state budget of $1 million could make a huge difference in the life of our waterways.
Learn more about the policies that could protect North Carolina's water in the future.
What is a CAFO?
CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. CAFOs are industrial-sized livestock operations that can confine tens of thousands of animals (usually pigs, chickens or turkeys) indoors throughout their short life cycle. In North Carolina, we see a concentration of hog/pig CAFOs in the eastern part of the state and chicken/turkey CAFOs across the state.
CAFOs can produce as much waste as a small city but without the most basic waste treatment system to process it. This untreated animal sewage is frequently disposed of on adjacent croplands. Significant problems arise because growers often apply waste far above the amounts needed for crop production and allow that waste to flow into local waterways, contaminating water resources and damaging downstream communities' health.
In the United States, state and federal regulators, unfortunately, turn a blind eye to this pollution. A 2017 EPA report shows that only 30% of the largest industrialized livestock facilities have permits as required by the Clean Water Act to control this pollution. Many of the states with the highest density of facilities have the lowest Clean Water Act compliance level.
SOURCE: https://waterkeeper.org/campaigns/pure-farms-pure-waters/