Pollution Prevention Agency Awards Grants 
to Assist State Pork Producers 
in Managing Environmental Activities

RALEIGH – Nine North Carolina pork producers will begin developing environmental management systems (EMSs) under grants awarded by the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA) to assist pork producers in the systematic management of their environmental activities. 

Each of the nine farms will receive up to $3,000 to assist in the development of an individualized EMS, a tool that provides organizations with a method to systematically manage their environmental activities, provides structure, and helps them to achieve environmental obligations and performance goals. An EMS follows a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle or PDCA and can be used by a wide range of organizations – from manufacturing facilities to service industries to agricultural operations to government agencies. 

The Environmental Protection Agency provided funding for the grants through a Water Quality Cooperative Agreement to develop tools and test outreach techniques for the state’s pork producers to implement an EMS. DPPEA will work on the project in cooperation with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and the N.C. State University Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Both agencies will provide EMS “coaches” to assist the farms in developing site-specific EMSs.

Interest in an EMS model for pork producers has increased since the separate agreements signed last year between the North Carolina attorney general’s office and Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard – which, among other things, require both companies to implement an ISO 14001-based EMS on all company-owned farms. ISO 14001 is an international standard adopted in 1996 that many organizations use as their model for an EMS. 

Farms/farmers awarded grants include: 

• TDM Farms of Newton Grove 
• White Rock Farms LLC of Marshville 
• Jo Ann Stroud of Kenansville 
• King Farms of Teachey 
• Cowan Farms of Ernul 
• Craven Farms Inc. of Trenton 
• Sarem Farms Inc. of Gates 
• Little Creek Hog Farms of Ayden; and 
• Lee A. Hosking of Roseboro. 

For more information about this project, please contact Barbara Satler, DPPEA environmental specialist, at 
(919) 715-6519 or barbara.satler@ncmail.net. For more information about EMS, please visit http://www.p2pays.org/iso/. 

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