Source: Ryke Longest, WRAL, 6/9/20

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ryke Longest is a Clinical Professor of Law at the Duke University School of Law and is Co-Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, a joint project of Duke Law and the Nicholas School of the Environment.
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North Carolina’s hog industry won over the public interest in the General Assembly last week, but it’s not too late for Gov. Roy Cooper to act. The legislature amended SB 315, the NC Farm Act, to make swine farmers’ public records exempt from public inspection and codify a new loophole in the longstanding swine waste lagoon and sprayfield moratorium. It’s a one-two punch that would shroud polluting farms in secrecy while allowing them to expand for the first time since 1997. The governor can still choose to veto.

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