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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest
Releases
The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate. If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly. |
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| DECEMBER
8, 1998 9:43 AM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Environmental Defense Fund |
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| North Carolinians Kick Off "Hog Watch" Campaign with Website Launch; Web Site www.hogwatch.org Powerful Tool In Battle To Clean Up Hog Waste | ||||
| NEW
YORK - December 8 - The North Carolina Environmental Defense Fund
(NCEDF) today joined former NC
Congressman Tim Valentine and a group of citizen and environmental activists to
launch a powerful new web site as part of a campaign to clean up hog factories
in North Carolina. The new web site, www.hogwatch.org, will contain free, readily accessible facts and
figures on the serious environmental and public health impacts of factory hog
farming, along with detailed information on each of the state's more than 2,500
factory hog farms. This solution-oriented clearinghouse is also designed to
provide real opportunities for citizens to influence important policy and
regulatory decisions. Environmental and community groups are hopeful of major
reforms in the 1999 NC General Assembly legislative session.
"The name of the web site conveys what environmental groups, community groups, and individual citizens are going to be doing – hogwatching -- until North Carolina solves the problems associated with factory hog farms," said Jane Preyer, director of NCEDF. "This is a new tool in a broad-based campaign to resolve North Carolina's hog problems once and for all." "North Carolinians have a right to know what's going on in their own backyards. The site describes the hog problem in graphic detail," said Dan Whittle, an NCEDF attorney. "We are putting the facts on-line and providing new ways for the public to make their voices heard by the Governor and legislators." "The passage of the moratorium extension is positive, and provides much needed momentum for putting solutions in place. But there is still much to be done. If North Carolina fails to act, we will be back to ground zero when the moratorium runs out on September 1, 1999," said former Congressman Valentine, who's been a leader in calling for tougher controls on factory hog farm pollution. Special features on the web site include:
"The Hogwatch web site will serve as a place where the facts speak for themselves and myths and public relations rhetoric no longer rule," said Whittle. “Most importantly, this web site offers up real and lasting solutions.” The Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national, NY-based nonprofit organization, represents 300,000 members. EDF links science, economics, and law to create innovative, equitable and economically viable solutions to today's environmental problems. Other groups joining NCEDF's launch of the website included Alliance for a Responsible Swine Industry, Bertie Citizens Action Coalition, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Concerned Citizens of Tillery, Neuse River Foundation, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, Sierra Club/NC chapter, and Southern Environmental Law Center. The Hog Watch website is designed and hosted by Knauer Communications. Hog Watch ### |
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