by Dave Juday

About the author: Dave Juday is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Food Issues. The Hudson Institute is a conservative think tank.

Hog production has been targeted by anti-agriculture environmental groups as a profound threat to the environment. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an advocacy group best-known for its opposition to pesticides, has even launched a “North Carolina Poop Counter” on the Internet to keep a running tally of the pounds of hog manure discharged in the state, and its phosphorous content. North Carolina is the nation’s second largest hog-producing state.

A survey conducted in March 1999 by [political research firm] Lake Snell Perry & Associates found that 80 percent of voters surveyed “favor creating tougher, uniform standards to limit the air and...