Podcasts about duplin county

Brian Lewis was born in Duplin County, specifically in Kenansville, North Carolina. They moved a lot when he was growing up. Political issues, abortion, gay rights, and other topics were discussed during his childhood. As a child, Brian came from a poor family. They lived in public housing, but their church helped them get through the hard times. Brian used to be a student government president in 5th grade. He is personally interested in journalism, which is why he was part of the student newspaper in college. Brian covered everything about the student government and the UNC system. He took up Political Science as his college major and had a master's degree in Public Affairs with a concentration in Public Policy. He also spent a lot of time in the communications department. How did Brian switch from Journalism to Public Affairs? What can he suggest for those who are interested in becoming a lobbyist? How was his experience in the world of Public Affairs? Join us as we listen to Brian Lewis's story in this next State Lobbying Heroes episode.

Tony Rivenbark grew up in Duplin County and wanted to go to college at the smallest branch in the University of North Carolina system. So he came to Wilmington. He walked into Thalian Hall in 1966, which, as he says, for good or ill, set the course for the rest of his life. In this episode, we hear him talk about local history, Shakespeare, historic Thalian Hall, and the importance of story.

Rep. Jimmy Dixon's mother was unmarried in 1944 when she was living and working in Wilmington, NC.  She was also pregnant.  In 1945, Rep. Dixon was born and an arrangement was made for him to live and grow up with his "Granny" in  Friendship, NC.  While his mother would visit him frequently, Rep. Dixon has never known who his father is.   This is an endearing Mother's Day story of a powerful legislator whose start in life was unlike many of those he grew up with in the middle of the 20th century in Duplin County.  It's also a story of love, sacrifice, and the power of family, no matter what it looks like.    Plus, Skye and Brian unpack the week in North Carolina politics, including the latest from Madison Cawthorn, a Meredith University poll, and the General Assembly session this week that was not.   The Do Politics Better podcast is sponsored by New Frame, the NC Travel Industry Association, and the NC Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association.   

Today, we're going to explore industrial agriculture and what that means to farmers and ranchers, to farm workers, to corporations, and consumers. Our guest today, Adam Zipkin, serves as council to New Jersey Senator, Cory Booker. He advises Senator Booker on issues related to food policy, agriculture, and animal welfare. Booker has been deeply engaged in legislation such as the Farm System Reform Act, Black Farmers Act, and the Climate Stewardship Act. Interview Summary Now, the work that you and your colleagues are doing, and of course, Senator Booker, is really important, groundbreaking work. So I'd like to dive in and talk about that. So first, could you tell us about the work that you and Senator Booker are doing - focused around the area of agriculture? I was with Senator Booker when he was Mayor Booker in Newark, New Jersey. And when he was mayor, we saw up close how a lot of communities in Newark were food deserts. We did a lot at the city level to try to address that where we had communities where people just didn't have access to healthy foods and to fresh fruits and vegetables. So we would try to attract new supermarkets and started growing a lot more produce in the city. But ultimately, we realized that the scale of the problem was just bigger than any one city could solve on its own. Then, when we came to the Senate, Senator Booker and I traveled and met with farmers, and went to rural communities, not just in New Jersey, but around the country. We went to Duplin County, North Carolina. And there, the Senator saw just how these massive factory farms, large CAFOs, were really hurting the local communities - primarily low-income communities, communities of color - with air pollution, water pollution, and health impacts. As we started working on the 2018 Farm Bill, we traveled to Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and met with farmers and ranchers there. What the Senator learned was that the same broken food system that was really hurting people in Newark was really a broken system nationally for all of us. So Senator Booker started working on legislation to try to change the system. And he introduced the Climate Stewardship Act, which is focused on investing in farmers and ranchers as part of the solution to climate change; and using existing voluntary USDA conservation programs and targeting dollars to regenerative Ag and soil health practices where we can reduce emissions and increase carbon sequestration. He introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act, which is a bill to comprehensively address the terrible history of discrimination by USDA against black farmers over the past century. Another really important bill that Senator Booker introduced was the Farm System Reform Act, which is a bill that would put a moratorium on new large factory farms and phase out large factory farms. It really comes up with sort of a blueprint to transition us from this current industrial model that is failing us on so many levels to a more regenerative system. That work is impressive and ambitious in scope. I wish you the best of luck with it. It's interesting to me that you happened to mention Duplin County, NC. So my colleagues and I at the World Food Policy Center did a tour of farms in eastern North Carolina several years back, and Duplin County was one of the places we went. And I just so happened to look up numbers for Duplin County. Now, this goes back several years, so I'm not sure how current they are. But if I remember, the annual production in that county - the counties in North Carolina aren't all that big, by the way, we have 100 of them - but Duplin County's annual production of hogs is 2 million hogs. And in addition to that, 5 million turkeys and 69 million chickens. And this is a single county. So the scope of the industrial agriculture, and of course, the consequences of it are really pretty impressive. So it's interesting you happen to go to that county as well. Let me ask about a report that was published by a group called Farm Action. They published this in 2020. It was entitled "The Truth about Industrial Agriculture." What was it that interested you about this report and how has it influenced your thinking and your work? So Farm Action is one of the stakeholders that our office has worked with a lot, and we consider them to be a really important voice on these issues. The report that you mentioned, "The Truth about Industrial Agriculture," is a report that really does a great job of going through all of the ways in which our industrial meat production system is harming all of us. It shows how it's a system that is really hurting independent family farmers who are forced to try to compete with a system that externalizes all of its costs. We're seeing independent family farmers driven into bankruptcy and forced to sell or be foreclosed on. We're seeing how this current factory farm system hurts the environment through the air pollution, and water pollution. And how it's really dangerous for public health, both in the impacts locally on neighbors with respiratory diseases like asthma, but also, the pandemic risks that we face from large factory farms and the way that the system is so harmful to workers. These were things that Senator Booker and I had learned about and were motivating us in bills like the Farm System Reform Act. But this report just does a great job of consolidating all that information and laying it out and also goes through and dispels a whole bunch of myths about the current system. Can I ask you a question about your perception of public opinion? So Americans, for decades, have spoken, in a way. They wanted food available all the time in their supermarkets in an abundant amount at the lowest possible cost. And the way to deliver on that, the hope that Americans had, was to have industrial agriculture. So do you think Americans are thinking differently about it now? Are you sensing a shift in public opinion or awareness that might be leading the general public along the lines of what you're talking? I do think there's starting to be a shift. I think there's been some polling in the last few years that show that the public does want these factory farms to be better regulated. And, there is growing support for putting a moratorium on new, large factory farms. I think that part of what's really important about reports like this and about bills like the Farm System Reform Act, and having advocates and Senator Booker and others out there talking about these issues and raising awareness about these issues, is I think that, the more that the public learns, the more public opinion will be supportive of bills like the Farm System Reform Act. Because I think that, currently, the industry tries to keep the system as opaque as possible, right? They try to pass these Ag gag laws at a state level that will punish people if they just try to take pictures or show the public what the conditions are like for animals and workers inside of these factory farms. So I think that public opinion is, I think, shifting and I think that, collectively, we're working to try to accelerate that. I'm a bit curious about your impression to see if it was consistent with mine. When we were doing the tours of farms that I mentioned, we visited some industrial-sized agriculture operations and the CAFO units and things. And it was our impression in speaking to the farmers that they weren't making a lot of money from this, that the big companies were, the big companies that are referred to as integrators, but the farmers weren't. And they looked like they were having tremendous risks because they bore most of the risks the companies didn't and their profit margins were very low and they had to work extremely hard under difficult circumstances. And so I think that, if there is any perception among the public, that it's the farmers themselves who work in these places that are making a lot of money. That didn't seem to be consistent with what we were doing. But I was wondering what your impressions were? I think that's exactly right, Kelly. We've met with contract farmers out in the field. We've also had contract farmers come to meet with us in Washington. And the first thing that struck us was how scared they were to even be talking to us because they were telling us that if the big integrators, if these big companies that they were contracting with, if they even found out that they were talking to us, that they could get punished by them. Like you said, a lot of these contract growers, if they were just having to live on the farm income, they would be at or below the poverty line, right? So they're forced to have family income from off the farm just to keep their heads above water. And a lot of them, what we heard from them, wished they had never gone down this road, where they were forced to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars to build these barns and these manure lagoons and these systems. And now, they've taken on all this debt and they feel like they're trapped and they just can't get out. So one of the things that we do in the Farm System Reform Act, in addition to putting the moratorium on new CAFOs, is to provide $10 billion a year for 10 years to give voluntary buyouts to farmers to contract growers that want to transition out of this industrial model to a more regenerative model. Whether it's using their barns to grow vegetables or mushrooms or to do pasture-based livestock or other types of regenerative agriculture to just help them get out. Oh, that's impressive. It's really nice that you're sensitive to the needs of the people that are working so hard. So back to the report that we were referring to, how do you hope that government agencies and elected officials will use information? I think it's a really important report for Senate offices and House offices to have at their fingertips and to be able to really learn about the system. Because other than the senators or the members of the House of Representatives who are actually on the agriculture committees and focus on these issues day to day, there are a lot of members of Congress, just like there's a lot of members of the public, that have no idea really, of what is going on in the current system. They've heard a lot of the industry talking points because there are well-funded campaigns to get their myths out there. There are also a lot of the dollars spent on lobbying by these big, consolidated, multinational companies. So I think that this report really can help raise awareness amongst members of Congress, both in D.C. and at the state level as well, where we've seen some bills similar to the Farm System Reform Act introduced in various states. And, I think that just having all this consolidated into one report and just laying out how, really, the current system benefits these big companies and their shareholders and really no one else. Sort of rural communities, the environment, animals, workers, independent farmers, all really are being hurt by this system, and having the report and having the sort of myths and the truths about some of the beliefs, I just think it could be really helpful. Because we need to add cosponsors to these bills and build momentum. I think in addition to what you were saying, and those are all really important points, that the average consumer going to the store to buy chicken, let's say, may not be thinking about the welfare of people who live in rural areas or the environmental damage done by some of these operations. But in fact, everybody does get affected by this, by things like antibiotic resistance and overall damage to climate, and there are just so many things that ripple through our world that really nobody's unaffected by it, are they? That's exactly right. I think that the report really, by focusing on all of the negative, externalities from these factory farms, that these big meat-packing companies, they don't absorb those costs, right? Instead those costs are being paid, whether it's by our healthcare system, or by the local communities, or the damage to the environment, through the water pollution where people's local streams and creeks are polluted and their Wells where their families have been drinking water from these wells for generations. And now, they've been poisoned. So all those are costs that don't appear when you're just paying the price at the supermarket, but that all of us are paying. I think the report does a great job of laying that out. So if the kind of policies you're talking about, and let's say other related policies, actually get enacted, what does a transition look like as we change from industrial to other forms of agriculture? Look, this system has been built over many decades and is massive in scale. And so it's not going to change overnight, which is part of why, in the Farm System Reform Act, we put in an immediate moratorium on new large factory farms but we phase them out between now and 2040, right. We recognize it's going to be a transition period that's going to take time. But I think the voluntary payments I mentioned, where we're helping to financially assist the farmers to transition to this new system, I think creating a system where we are paying for the types of practices that are beneficial from an environmental perspective and a climate change perspective, sort of transitioning to where the workplace is, right. Right now, these meat-packing workers are exposed to terrible working conditions. I mean, COVID-19 sort of tore the lid off of this system in terms of, what we don't usually get to see, the public got a view of these meat-packing plants and the conditions and how they became COVID-19 hotbeds and workers were getting sick and dying and creating COVID hotspots in their local communities. And so I think that the transition is where we start to create a system that, rather than benefiting just these big corporations, is benefiting rural communities, independent farmers, workers, and just getting started doing that. So what is success? I think success looks like starting to align our public subsidies with the type of food system that we want to create. Because one thing we haven't even talked about is the ultimate impact of our current system on the people that are eating the food, right. In our country, right now, we're seeing an explosion of diet-related diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, certain types of cancer, all preventable diseases. That's sort of the end result from this system. And so I think that success will be where, right now, our dietary guidelines say we should be eating 50% or more of our diet should be fruits and vegetables, but less than 2% of our federal Ag subsidies go to fruits and vegetables. So I think aligning our public investments with the outcomes that we want to see. And then, ultimately, success is a system where rather than being part of the climate change problem, our food system is part of the solution by absorbing more carbon than it is generating. And a system that treats workers fairly and treats animals more humanely and has positive economic and environmental impacts on the rural communities. I think transitioning to that, ultimately, is success. I just finished a book called "The Poison Squad," and it is a book about how really broken our food system was at the turn of the century, in the 1900s. And how there was just a decades-long fight by policy makers and the public and advocates to change the system. And they were successful over time. I think it gave me hope that collectively we can now fight that same fight and hopefully have a system that ultimately reflects our values. Bio: Adam Zipkin currently serves as Counsel to United States Senator Cory Booker. In this role, Adam advises Senator Booker on issues related to food policy, agriculture and animal welfare. Before his employment in the Senate, Adam was Deputy Mayor for Economic Development for the City of Newark, New Jersey. Prior to working in City Hall, Adam operated a law office primarily devoted to providing pro bono legal services to Newark residents in need, with a focus on providing representation to low income tenants. In 2006, Adam received the “Pro Bono Attorney of the Year” Award from Essex County Legal Services, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice Program in recognition of his service and dedication to meeting the legal needs of indigent persons.

Rep. Jimmy Dixon was raised by his grandmother on a farm before he went on to play football at Wake Forest on a scholarship and returned to Duplin County to build a farm that processed over 700,000 turkeys a year.   The Duplin County Republican talks of why he got into politics and why he is on a mission to educate his legislative colleagues on where their food comes from.   Brian and Skye also report on the ups and downs of final budget negotiations between General Assembly leaders and Governor Roy Cooper, review of a red-hot political ad, a possible gubernatorial candidacy by a NC congressman, a bipartisan energy bill that is sitting on Governor Cooper's desk, and the death of Rep. Dana Bumbardner.   There's also a recap of the inaugural Do Politics Better Kickball game played on October 5 outside the General Assembly. The Do Politics Better podcast is sponsored by New Frame, the NC Travel Industry Association, and the NC Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association.  

How does Air Pollution from Factory Farming affect the Environment?The smell of hog feces was overwhelming, Elsie Herring said. The breezes that wafted from the hog farm next to her mother’s Duplin County, N.C., home carried hazardous gases: methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide.“The odor is so offensive that we start gagging, we start coughing,” she told a congressional committee in November 2019. Herring, who died last week, said she and other residents developed headaches, breathing problems and heart conditions from the fumes.Now, a first-of-its-kind study shows that air pollution from Duplin County farms is linked to roughly 98 premature deaths per year, 89 of which are linked to emissions directly caused by hogs. Those losses are among more than 17,000 annual deaths attributable to pollution from farms across the United States, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On this episode, we're continuing our conversations on the stakeholder processes directed by the NC Clean Energy Plan. This time around though we're focused on the North Carolina Energy Regulatory or B1 process. We sat down with Josh Brooks, formerly of RMI and now with Brooksform LLC to talk about the stakeholder processes that took place over the past year and the final report of recommendations published right before the end of 2020. If you're interested in the topic of regulatory reform, than this episode is for you. To read the final B1 report, check out the NC DEQ website: https://files.nc.gov/ncdeq/climate-change/clean-energy-plan/2020-NERP-Final-Report.pdf Also, we're introducing a new segment this time around – The North Carolina Solar Traveler. Daniel Pate, NCSEA's Energy Program Manager will take us on a virtual tour of clean energy projects installed throughout the state of North Carolina and share some fun facts about the region along the way. On today's episode we're focused on Duplin County and the 65MW Warsaw solar project: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/coastal/news/2016/04/6/warsaw-solar-facility Presented by NC Sustainable Energy Association. Hosted and produced by Matt Abele (Twitter: @MattAbele)

Wendell Holmes Murphy was born September 23, 1938, to Holmes & Lois King Murphy of Rose Hill, North Carolina, and is the brother of Harry Daniel (Pete) Murphy and the late Joyce Murphy Minchew. Wendell was raised in Duplin County on a farm in the Registers Crossroads area. He graduated from Rose Hill High School in 1957, received his Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural education from North Carolina State University in 1960 and taught vocational agriculture for five years in Green and Duplin counties. Wendell is married to Linda Godwin Murphy from Spivey's Corner in Sampson County. They have four children; Wendell Holmes (Dell) Murphy, Jr, Wendy Murphy Crumpler, Cindy Hairr Bass, and Wesley Hairr. They have seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Wendell Holmes Murphy was born September 23, 1938, to Holmes & Lois King Murphy of Rose Hill, North Carolina, and is the brother of Harry Daniel (Pete) Murphy and the late Joyce Murphy Minchew. Wendell was raised in Duplin County on a farm in the Registers Crossroads area. He graduated from Rose Hill High School in 1957, received his Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural education from North Carolina State University in 1960 and taught vocational agriculture for five years in Green and Duplin counties. Wendell is married to Linda Godwin Murphy from Spivey’s Corner in Sampson County. They have four children; Wendell Holmes (Dell) Murphy, Jr, Wendy Murphy Crumpler, Cindy Hairr Bass, and Wesley Hairr. They have seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The post Boss Hog: How Leadership and Collaboration Drive Innovation | Wendell H. Murphy appeared first on Popular Pig.

Some may wonder how one man finds time to run an outpatient counseling clinic five days a week and still manage to write, direct, and produce his own series of films and books, but Dr. Terrence Graham does it. As the co-founder and owner of Graham, Moore & Clark LLC, Addiction, Behavioral and Biblical Counseling, Dr. Graham provides individual and group therapy for adolescents and adults from 12 years old to the elderly. Some of his services include providing clinical supervision at Level III residential homes, opioid treatment, and substance abuse assessments and treatment for the NC Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). He started his private practice counseling service in his hometown of Kenansville, NC in 2008. He debuted his practice with two other counselors who are based outside of North Carolina, but as the company grew, he decided to move forward on his own. Dr. Graham holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a master's degree in Agency Counseling from NC A&T State University, and a doctorate in Biblical Counseling from Andersonville Theology Seminary. He says that psychology was a natural passion for him.   He was also a Wake County school-based mental health therapist for 13 years where he provided addiction and behavioral counseling for adolescents. He notes that therapy can also help address conflict resolutions, anger management, anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, and more. Dr. Graham is also a licensed clinical addiction specialist, national certified addiction counselor, masters addiction counselor, distance credentialed counselor, substance abuse professional, certified bariatric treatment specialist, and clinical certified sex offender treatment specialist.   Dr. Graham is currently working on expanding his biblical counseling services by connecting with churches to be a liaison to promote mental health awareness and be a resource for pastors. Biblical counseling is the process in which the Bible is used to treat addictions, behaviors and mental health.   A longtime lover of drawing and creating, Dr. Graham initially dreamt up his film production company, 5Ft Productions as a third grader in Rose-Hill Magnolia Elementary School, in Duplin County, NC. Dr. Graham now uses his established film company to produce movies that can be used as teaching tools in his counseling practice. Each film produced is organized around a behavioral concept that he treats as a counselor.   5ft Productions is Dr. Graham's multi-media production company that produces independent films, publishes books, video, music, and curriculum writing. The company's body of work currently consists of five movies, three published books, an album and an anti-bullying curriculum manual.   To learn more about Graham, Moore & Clark LLC, please visit their office at:   4086 Barrett Drive, STE A Raleigh, NC 27609   You may alos call them at 919-710-7332    You can also send an email to:  gmccounseling@yahoo.com   To learn more about Dr. Terrence Graham, please visit his website at www.5ftproductionsllc.com   To view the edition of Huami Magazine that Dr. Terrence Graham is featured in please click on the following link: https://issuu.com/terrywatson7/docs/huami_magazine_ralieigh_nov_20192   To learn more about Huami Magazine, please visit our website at www.mykelmedia.com   Please follow Huami Magazine on Facebook and Instagram   To advertise on this podcast, or to learn more about advertising in the pages of Huami Magazine, please call 336-340-7844 or send a detailed email to huamimagazine@gmail.com    

Inspiration can come in many forms when you really sit down and think about it. For Xavier Brodie the inspiration to make music came during an early age from his mother and paying close attention to the genres and artists that she listened to. Then, after becoming an artist he received inspiration from J. Cole to make his stage name XBrodie. For XBrodie, making music is more than just putting words down on paper and reciting them over beats. It is about using his voice as an instrument to truly provide his authentic self to his fans with each and every piece of work. His latest project 'She' is a clear example of that from start to finish and can be found on all listening platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, etc. Along the journey Brodie attributes his success to many areas, from fans to some of his close brothers Slade The Supreme and Dre of the East. However, it isn't just about music as he wants to make an impact in his community of Duplin County especially dealing with adolescents. Tune in to episode 12 to learn about 'The Three's Company Tour' and the impact it made although stopped short due to COVID-19, what Brodie does to differentiate himself from other artists and much more! For more information on XBrodie and to stay up to date with his latest music: Instagram: @xbrodie Apple Music: XBrodie Spotify: XBrodie --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Tonight's guest, Hans Staps, had just lost his father when he was 15. Soon, after his father's passing, Hans' uncle took him deer hunting, hoping that would help take his mind off the loss of his father. They went hunting by the Goshen Swamp, in Duplin County, North Carolina, near Hans' home. While watching for deer that day, he wound up seeing something he never expected to see. Something that was huge, covered with hair, and most importantly, something that knew he was there! We hope you'll tune in and listen to Hans share the details of that encounter. It's a day he's never going to forget. If you'd like to help support the show, by buying your own Bigfoot Eyewitness t-shirt or sweatshirt, please visit the Bigfoot Eyewitness Show Store, by going to Dogman-Encounters.MyShopify.com If you've had a Sasquatch sighting and would like to be a guest on Bigfoot Eyewitness Radio, please go to BigfootEyewitness.com and submit a report. Thanks, as always, for listening!

Schema and Riot head to Duplin County with the Southern Graveyard Crew to investigate a few cemeteries as well as an abandoned Tobacco Barn! Sponsors Spit In My Face Podcast: https://spitinmyfacepodcast.com/ Riot Stickers: https://www.riotstickers.com/ Featured Band COUNTERPOINT (NC/VA) https://counterpointgo.bandcamp.com/ ____________________________________________ Please support us by subscribing, liking, adding, and donating!!! ___________________________________________ Twitter: https://twitter.com/PRexplorers Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PRexplorersnc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prexplorers/ Tumblr (blog): https://www.tumblr.com/blog/prexplorers Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PRexplorers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD8VGbSBCOy91F7BT4SVHLQ/videos?view_as=subs --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/prexplorers/support

This episode features award-winning environmental journalist Lisa Sorg, who discussed a dangerous industrial compound in the Haw River basin -- and what the state and environmental groups are doing to combat the polluters. Plus, Duplin County resident Elsie Herring traveled to Washington, DC to testify before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, which held a hearing on environmental justice concerns around the country. Herring provided moving testimony about the harms her community has experienced at the hands of industrial pork producers in North Carolina. Finally, we spoke with Lewis Dozier, a farmer and community leader in Brunswick County, who shared insight on his fight against landfill construction, the impacts of development and climate change on his community's water supply, and the systemic racism that has plagued black farmers in the South.

In 1980, Juvencio Rocha Peralta became frustrated by the job opportunities in Veracruz Mexico, a town of about 500 people, so he took a big chance. At the age of 16, he moved to Duplin County, where he worked in agriculture. He wanted more, so he started studying and eventually moved into a new career. He came to love this area, set down roots, and in 1986, became a citizen. This week’s First in Future guest, Juvencio Rocha Peralta, is the Executive Director of AMEXCAN (The Association of Mexicans in North Carolina), an agency that tries to do two different things: help Mexicans and other members of the LatinX community figure out how to be fully-participating members of the towns they live in, and also to help the long-time members of their communities appreciate the importance of the new residents. On today’s show we talk with Juvencio about his AMEXCAN work, and his pathway from working in the fields to being recognized as part of the Academy of Community Engaged Scholars. We hear his thoughts on current immigration policy and some critical health care challenges the LatinX community are facing.

By the end of the twentieth century, hog farming had replaced tobacco as the backbone of eastern North Carolina's economy. Today, the hog industry is a source of both contention and pride in the area. In rural Duplin County, the home of Smithfield Foods, hogs outnumber people 40 to 1. Open-air lagoons store massive amounts of hog waste, which is then sprayed over the surrounding fields as fertilizer. For decades, residents have claimed that these waste management practices cause a host of health issues, environmental harm, and loss of property value.  Reporter-producer Otis Gray travels to Duplin County, where a group of concerned citizens believes that industrial hog farms disproportionately affect low-income communities of color. Residents and activists have now filed a civil rights complaint with the EPA, and they hope that their voices will be heard. 

We are making progress. You join me today on the 8th run since we have started project "GB"  (Getting Back). It will take a few more short weeks before we get to where we can run the full 30 minutes without walking; we will get there. I begin this episode with a short clip from when I visited my mother several days ago in the nursing facility back home in Duplin County, NC. It was a good visit and you get to hear just a few minutes of the beginning. If there is someone in your life who needs a visit from you: do it asap! We never know when we will have that last opportunity. We close things out with listener correspondence. I always love hearing from my listeners! If you would, send me an email, contact me on FB, or use the Speakpipe button on the homepage (not available on the app or mobile: sorry! I would love to hear from you, regardless of how. We will be back in 2 weeks with another episode. Until then, share the 20 Minute Runner information with your running friends and contact me. I will share your correspondence on an upcoming episode. And as always, Thanks for sharing some of the road with me,The 20 Minute Runner _________________________ The opening and closing music is by The Jefferson, and is entitled "Running." It can be found at Music Alley and is used under a CC license.  The music video of the song can be found on YouTube. The song in the body of the podcast is by Mirva and is entitled "Stay With Me" and is used under a CC license. Check it out at Jamendo.

North Carolina community colleges provide education to hundreds of thousands of students each year, but another important part of their mission is to support economic development in their local communities. In the spirit of those directives, James Sprunt Community College in Duplin County is leaving no stone unturned, or more accurately put, no grape unpicked.

North Carolina community colleges provide education to hundreds of thousands of students each year, but another important part of their mission is to support economic development in their local communities. In the spirit of those directives, James Sprunt Community College in Duplin County is leaving no stone unturned, or more accurately put, no grape unpicked.

Between Two Flags: The Civil War in Northeastern NC Elizabeth City, NC This new exhibit at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City provides a look at the Civil War through various real people who experienced it first hand. Also, check out three recently recovered Confederate Flags. Bostic Lincoln Center Bostic, NC Folks in Bostic think Abe Lincoln was born here, and they've built a small museum that supports their case! The Spa at Fearrington Pittsboro, NC Karin Reed tours this unpretentious but elegant spa that is getting rave reviews. Historic Hope Plantation Windsor, NC A new interpretation of Governor David Stone's will has led to a complete revamping of his grand home. The Country Squire Warsaw, NC Bob Garner visited this beloved Duplin County restaurant as it celebrates 50 years of success. Thursday February 2 at 9:00pm: Mummies of the World Charlotte, NC This exhibit at Discovery Place in Charlotte collects mummies from around the world in a startling and fascinating display.