As hogs oinked inside a barn, Josh Coombs held feed and showed the animal’s diet of grain and minerals to visitors.
While talking about the hog house system, he rubbed a few on their backs.
“I’m proud of it,” Coombs said about the farm that’s been in his family for several generations. “I think it’s a good thing showing how we’re family farmers and we’re not big industrial like some people say we are. We’re local homegrown farms. I think it’s a great thing for people to come out and see what it takes to grow a healthy food source.”
When the farmer in his 30s is not around hogs, he can be seen switching his protective overalls for a firefighter’s uniform. As a community member, there’s two things Coombs take seriously — saving lives and feeding people through his farm. He was glad to show people how he does it, while being a good steward of the environment. Feed the Dialogue NC and NC Pork Council hosted a tour of the Coombs Family’s finishing farm to see how pigs are grown indoors and other environmental practices. He took over in 2003.
“There’s a lot of people who try to spread bad news about us as hog farmers or farmers in general, but they don’t realize what it takes to produce a healthy sustainable food source,” Coombs said. “This is our livelihood and we’re not going to do anything that going to effect the economy in a bad way or the environment in a bad way.”
The avid outdoorsman grew up around pigs that once roamed an open field on the family farm, before the practice transitioned to barns, which many say is more environmentally safer. Inside, temperatures are adjusted to keep the hogs comfortable.
“This morning when it was rainy and cold, in here, it’s comfortable,” Coombs said to visitors “It’s 75 degrees in here and they’re in the perfect environment.”
Before the tour, he stressed that it’s something he’s always trying to do.
“Everything we do is to stay in business, we’re not trying to hurt our neighbors or hurt the environment,” he said. “We’re doing new practices where we’re constantly innovating new ideas that basically makes the environment better.”
He serves as full-time firefighter with the Clinton Fire Department and part-time firefighter and volunteer with the Taylors Bridge Fire Department, which served as the tour’s meeting place. While waiting in the bay, he said a lot of farmers are also public servants.
“We care about our community and we care about our neighbors,” he said. “A lot of us our preachers, police officers, firemen, and EMS workers.”
During the tour, participants were shown the barn and the lagoon, where environmental specialist James Lamb talked about the operations. It contains about 3 million gallons of water.
“It’s 25 years old and was built in 1994 and it never had a water level higher than that (pipe),” Lamb said while pointing towards the lagoon. “I think it’s outstanding that in 25 years, that this has been able to survive four major hurricanes.”
After the animals digest a grain feed diet with minerals and water, their waste goes to the nearby lagoon through plugs. Once its in the lagoon, solids float to the bottom. Anaerobic bacteria (described as small bugs), begin to eat down the solids. Nitrogen is later produced and added to crops as fertilizer.
Feed the Dialogue’s mission is to serve as a gathering place for people to talk about food and the farmers who grow it. Marlowe Vaughan, a pig farmer and executive director of the organization, believes there’s a huge disconnect between farmers and the average consumer. The goal of the educational and nonprofit organization is to bridge that gap. Funding for the tour was provided by a grant through the Tobacco Trust Fund Corporation.
“I think people are so far removed from their food system, they don’t know how much agriculture involved and how hard farmers work to produce a safe and nutritious product on their plate,” she said. “I think that’s the most important message that I want to convey — the hard work of the American farmer.”
Andy Curliss, CEO of the NC Pork Council, hopes the tour helped clear up misunderstandings about hog farm operations through media reports.
“Feed the Dialogue is an organization in North Carolina that’s set up to do that,” Curliss said about supporting the organization. “It wants to engage,it wants to inform and it want to educate.”
He added that the pork industry is vital to the state, while acknowledging farmers such as Coombs.
“It’s really important for people to understand that all of those farmers are pulling in the same direction to support the economy of North Carolina,” Curliss said.
After the tour, Curliss released an updated economic impact report of the industry. According to a report from North Carolina State University, the state’s hog and pork processing industry generates more than $10 billion in economic output for the state. It shows that pork production and processing categories contribute $5.9 billion in sales and provides more than 19,000 jobs. For every job in pork production, an estimated 2.2 additional jobs are created, meaning the industry supports more than 44,000 jobs in the state.
The pork industry supports nearly every county, but the study focused on the impact from the state’s four largest hog producers — Sampson, Duplin, Bladen and Wayne. Combined, they contributed more than $7.1 billion to the state’s economy and supported nearly 19,000 jobs. In Sampson County, the totals for the pork industry were $1.48 billion and 6,100 jobs, representing about 25 percent of employment in the area. According to the release from the council, Sampson is North Carolina’s top agriculture county and ranks second in hog production. It’s also home to the second largest pork processing plant in the state.
Everett Johnson, a Surry County hog producer and president of the NC Pork Council, said they’re proud to play a significant role in supporting the state’s agricultural economy, especially in rural communities.
“This comprehensive economic analysis shows that each of our farms contributes greatly to the local economy, not only through taxes, but also by supporting local equipment and car dealers, restaurants, churches, charities, stores and more,” Johnson stated in a news release from the NC Pork Council. “And we are doing this despite a 22-year moratorium on building new pig farms.”
“We founded that pig production and pig slaughter and processing make critical contributions to the economies of rural counties and surrounding counties in North Carolina,” stated Dr. Kelly Zering, a professor at NC State’s Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics.
Zering led development for the study. The figure’s in the report account for pig production and slaughtering, but does not include the market for value-added processing, such as sausage, ham, bacon, or the rendering section. While the pork industry accounts for a substantial share of these two sectors, Zering noted insufficient data to document the industry’s exact share of the markets.
Susan J. Holder, assistant manager for Sampson County and Sue Lee, vice chair for the county’s Board of Commissioners, showed support for farmers too. Along with other participants, they enjoyed sharing a meal from Southern Smoke, which included pork and chicken grown on farm. Lee showed concern that negativity could deter someone from being a farmer.
“The people that are in it now, they’re going to be getting older,” Lee said. “We need people who find the industry attractive, we need them to stay in the county and we need this for our revenue.”
Lee shared the same feelings about the benefits of farming.
“When you’re talking about agriculture, you’re talking about jobs and tax revenue,” Holder said.”There’s nothing else that impacts those two things more greatly than our agricultural industry. Being able to have something like this happen today, and help people understand that value, and appreciate it the way we do, it’s an invaluable thing to do.”
