[sageabilly]

One of the things this article doesn't touch on is the very deep roots of hog farming in rural NC and the general prevailing attitude of "This is how we've always done it and I don't want no gubment telling me what I can and can't do with my land!" There is a sense of pride in being a hog farmer like your daddy and your granpappy and your uncle and you hope to pass down those roots to your sons some day. As to why there's a blind eye to the literal rivers of hog shit flowing into the creeks/rivers every time it floods, that I have no idea- I don't understand why people who live in that part of the state will cut their nose off to spite their face by accepting huge hog waste lagoons as a fact of life with hog farming. Being from NC I absolutely see Southern Stubbornness at work here.

Driving down the interstates in the eastern part of NC you see multiple billboards both pro- and anti-hog farming, with arguments ranging from "Hog farming keeps my children fed!" to "Hog farming is destroying our environment!" It reminds me of the pro- and anti-coal arguments currently underway in West Virginia.

[lsaferite]

I'll not argue the point you are making as I don't disagree.

I would just like to say I find it highly annoying when people denigrate people from the south by using 'words' like 'gubment' and 'granpappy' as some sort of assumed indicator of intelligence level of the subject being discussed. You being from NC and using this same backhanded insult troubles me even more TBH. Do people from the south use those words, or ones that sound like that, in conversation? Sure, sometimes. But your usage of them isn't in an effort to be accurate but more to signal some perceived superiority of intellect. You allow a difference in speech to sway opinion on your subjects possibility of knowing what they talking about.

I was born in the south, raised in the south, and currently live in the south. Whilst I find the southern twang of the people around me amusing (I don't have much of the southern speech patterns for some reason), I would never let their words and pronunciations cloud the fact that there are super smart people amongst the crowd, just like any other part of the country.

And just in case I wasn't clear, using words like 'gubment' and 'granpappy' naturally in your own writing isn't my issue, it's using them as a signal about your subject that bothers me greatly.

[sudosteph]

I'm from NC too. I didn't really interpret those words in that context as implying low intelligence. Some people in NC do really talk that way. The stereotype that people who talk like that aren't educated or intelligent is a big problem, but I didn't interpret OPs comment as reinforcing that problem. It was a pretty accurate description of something people in NC hear often from a certain type of southerner. I interpreted it more as a "slice of life" or Mark Twain-esque description of informal speech to bring readers in. Readers can certainly bring their own prejudices in, but thats on them. I certainly don't doubt that we have very intelligent people in all parts. Heck, the one person I know from a hog producing family is very intelligent. Though you wont find a stronger voice against hog farming and the pollution and health problems it causes than her.

I'm just worried that by saying it's not ok to use aspects of southern dialect when describing southerners, that we reinforce the idea that there is something "wrong " with that dialect and are erasing a part of the local culture so it doesn't offend mainstream taste.

[wallawe]

100% agree. It's become so commonplace to stereotype southerners in a particular way in the media and by Hollywood. I live in NYC now and have to deal with constant judgement whenever I mention I'm from Alabama. The most ironic thing is that it's typically from the "tolerant" left.

[DataWorker]

Thanks for making this point. People who would never even consider mocking the speech patterns of immigrants will fall all over themselves to denigrate southerners, thier speech and deplorable, to some, religious beliefs.

[spacehome]

That really is the way it sounds (at least to my ears). Accent is unrelated to intelligence. The only person here making that connection is you.

[kurthr]

The words you're looking for are, "smells like money".

The wealthy/corps who distribute/buy don't care because they don't live there... working farmers know nothing else that will keep their family on the middleclass treadmill (education is right out) without the externalities of stench and pollution, while the working poor (closest to the animals and carcasses) couldn't find another job without uprooting their extended family.

It's a simple living that most communities couldn't stomach. One day there will be a virus or bacteria that will wipe it out, but until then you won't take away their lifestyle. It's all they know.

[IAmEveryone]

I wonder if their grandparents also used copious amounts of antibiotics on their animals...

[jjeaff]

Antibiotic use in livestock became prevelant in the late 50s, so yes. In fact, they probably used more back then because it was yet to be discovered that it was causing resistance issues.