Organic farmers struggle to compete with hog giants

After opening the world's largest hog-processing plant 110 miles down the road in Tar Heel, Smithfield Foods now slaughters 32,000 hogs there daily, processing their remains and shipping them around the globe.

Since opening her sustainable hog farm 25 miles down the road in Snow Camp, Eliza MacLean has pasture-raised her small herd of hogs. She gets orders from far-away locales but usually declines, instead encouraging would-be customers to buy locally.

Smithfield's labor, environmental and hog confinement practices have drawn protest since the Tar Heel plant doors opened in 1992, and activists are looking to farmers like MacLean to relocalize hog farming, which has become an increasingly large-scale operation based in poor N.C. communities.

UNC student groups joined the movement this semester, collaborating to raise awareness of state food systems that tend to favor industrial giants like Smithfield.

FLO Foods, which stands for Fair, Local and Organic, has tried to even the footing for small farms by weaning the campus dining halls off the $25,000 of Smithfield pork they serve each month.

They've faced obstacles that typify the statewide struggle to phase out industrial food. Carolina Dining Services can't immediately drop Smithfield products because they're less expensive than the sustainable alternatives that still lack widespread campus support.