Beginning of Essay
During the last twenty years, industrial livestock farms have been replacing the traditional family size farms that once raised most of the nation’s swine. The number of livestock animals produced in the United States has grown modestly in the past two decades, ....

Middle of Essay
.... ground, where it is stored until it can be pumped out to irrigate fields. The solid manure sinks to the bottom of the lagoon and is broken down by anaerobic bacteria over several months. The liquid rises to the top and is collected and sprayed over nearby fields. Many problems come with the lagoons. North Carolina is one of the top hog producing states in the country. On June 21, 1995, North Carolina suffered the largest agricultural waste spill in its history: a 7.5-acre, 12-foot-deep lagoon leaked 25 million gallons of hog waste into the headwaters of the New River near Richlands. The waste from the 10,000-head operation, owned by Oceanview ....