Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Tim Davis, Jamey Hansen, Tim Frerking, Chris Mende and Keesia Wirt.

The rural tobacco and soybean farming area of Onslow County, located on the coast of North Carolina, is full of hogwash.

Literally.

The area’s Ocean View Farms, which is a facility utilized by North Carolina’s meat producers, the largest in the nation, caused quite a ruckus last year when a lagoon that was supposed to compensate for waste from the plant failed.

The accident, which even fervent environmentalists couldn’t have imagined, dumped 22 million gallons of manure, covering tobacco and soybean fields before their river turned a nice, iced tea color.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the river is nothing but urine and feces now,”said Tom Mattison, who is running for the Onslow County Commission.

Since the spill, there has been a bipartisan effort in North Carolina to closely monitor the 4,000 lagoons in the state to prevent further disasters, a move many hog producers in the state oppose, saying it will damage the investments the state is making in the livestock industry.

Gov. Jim Hunt, who has called for tighter control over the lagoons, has stressed that he still believes that North Carolina’s production of pork, chicken and turkey is a vital industry to the state. However, he says he wishes for the meat industry to be responsible as well as productive.

Many hog producers have said they favor the controls, as incidents like the Ocean View accident cast all farmers in a bad light.

And perhaps, they realize that dumping manure on your customers is not good business sense.

With all of the debate and discussion over meat production facilities here in Iowa, a close look at the direction North Carolina is headed would seem to be prudent: An efficient, productive industry that is also concerned about the environment and safety of the land it uses and the citizens who support their business.

The two are not exclusive of each other.