I don't know how much Jerry Masters is compensated as executive vice president of the politically active Arkansas Pork Producers Association, but the man ought get a big ol' pork barrel bonus for his latest PR effort.

In his rant against those with concerns over the enormous amounts of hog waste generated by C&H Hog Farms in Mount Judea, Masters refers to the original complaint filed by the superintendent of the Buffalo National River about “the family-owned farm” wanting to expand. In his promotional zeal,Masters tried his darnedest to make it appear this is just some farmers wanting a much bigger hog farm than they’ve been managing for years.

Not mentioned is the fact that this enormous hog factory was wrongheadedly permitted last year by our state’s Department of Environmental Quality (cough) atop karst-riddled ground in the state’s worst possible environmental location. The location (not a hog farm)always has been the problem for me and many others. Trying to make it appear otherwise is, using Masters’ own word, disingenuous. The present site also is miles closer to the Buffalo than where this family had been operating its much smaller family hog farm.

The pork spokesman really slathers on the hyperbole where he chastises opponents: “The flames of fear have been fanned and exploited by some who have expressed opposition to state government, agriculture, and large-scale food production. They have attacked the farmers’ motives (making a living by hog farming); assailed the values, ethics, morals and intent of the company buying the farm’s hogs (Cargill); and have tried to generate opposition by comparing the Newton County farm with large-scale hog production in other states.”
Masters blisters all who’ve dared question the irregular way this hog factory was permitted without knowledge of the National Park Service, the Department of Environmental Quality’s own director and that agency’s office in Jasper. Yet he doesn’t address that relevant fact.
I realize Masters earns his living as the state’s foremost pork promoter. His essay even reads like a corporate PR release.

I also saw no coincidence that it was published on the heels of the Buffalo River Waterkeepers week-long speaking tour of seven Arkansas cities. At those sessions, four experts warned of the severe damage that waste from hog factories inflicted on the once-clear streams of other states (primarily North Carolina). They’d come to warn Arkansas that more stringent laws and advanced methods should be required here to prevent similar catastrophes, particularly in the country’s first national river.

Thanks to them and a salute to the Waterkeepers for bringing such knowledgeable people to Arkansas to share their experience with this serious national problem.
Masters notes: “Until the resources being spent by activists are redirected to mitigate actual Buffalo River pollution, not imagined pollution based on speculation and fear mongering, their efforts are as disingenuous as any accusations they apply to others.”
I don’t know anyone against hogs or farmers, although the entire notion of utilizing these concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)is under scrutiny nationally on humane and environmental grounds. You can quickly educate yourself with a recommended Internet check on hog CAFOs. To accuse concerned citizens of being anti-farmer is a ruse, a bright crimson oinker (as opposed to a red herring).

As with many others, I see neither need nor justification for our state placing this precious national river at risk of contamination from the daily waste generated by swine whose waste will be regularly siphoned from massive cesspools and spread across the fields surrounding Big Creek, which feeds into the Buffalo.

I also understand why folks from across our nation who’ve seen the quality of their state’s rivers destroyed by waste from hog factories would be concerned and cautionary about contaminating the Buffalo since it is, after all, designated as the country’s first national river. Accordingly, the responsibility for stewardship belongs to every American.
I do agree with Masters that any past or ongoing contamination of the Buffalo also needs to be halted permanently, whatever that requires.

There are many who don’t derive a sense of purpose or earn our living from the pork producing industry who disagree with Mr. Masters’ special-interest analysis of one mountain family’s “farm” permitted in the Buffalo National River’s watershed being attacked by a bunch of “disingenuous,” exploitative citizens.

Besides all that, I enjoy crispy bacon.