Big Companies Bet On Cleaner Power From Pig Poop Ponds
Two large companies plan to capture natural gas from manure-filled ponds, turning it into clean, climate-saving energy. But some neighbors just want the ponds gone.
In a secluded corner of rural eastern North Carolina, at the end of a long and winding farm lane, a pit of stinking hog manure is doing its bit to save the world from climate change.
It may be a whiff of things to come.
"You're standing in the middle of about 12,000 head" of hogs, says Kraig Westerbeek, an executive at Smithfield Foods, the country's biggest pork producer. The animals live in rows of buildings nearby, eating and excreting. Their manure flows into a big pond, called a lagoon, right in front
