In 1993 after the North Carolina General Assembly and the North Carolina State University recognized that swine odor problems had to be address in a specific way, the Swine Odor Task Force was formed. Two broad questions were to be answered and they are: “What are the primary sources and causes of odors from swine operations? and How can those odors be reduced or make less offensive?”. The swine production has doubled in North Carolina in the last four years with no real adjustment to environmental considerations and manure management and also increasing contacts between non-farming rural residents and farms. In many communities, odor complaints started making the news. The answer on the questions are presented in this report and information about the industry growth, public conflicts, odors, waste management, water quality are presented. Options for odor reduction are also presented for now and for the future. The main avenues toward odor reduction are related to overall better management thorough out the production.

This document covers well the situation of odour and the information is presented in order to be understood by a broad group of reader. However it is not possible to refer to the information sources used in order to write this report as the references are not given.