Hog Industry Holds Key to Bladen County, N.C., Economic Fortunes.

Byline: Greg Barnes

Dec. 18--Without the hog industry, hundreds of North Carolina farmers might have found themselves in another line of work.

And without Smithfield Foods, which led to the surge in hog farms, thousands of people in southeastern North Carolina would probably be struggling to find jobs today.

The N.C. Pork Council estimates that 46,000 people in the state make their living directly off hogs.

More than 5,000 of them work at the Smithfield slaughterhouse on N.C. 87 in Tar Heel, making it Bladen County's largest employer.

For many people, the slaughterhouse couldn't have been built at a better time.

Before it opened on Oct. 5, 1992, about one in nine Bladen County residents was out of work.

Back then, the county depended largely on textile plants to employ its residents, and the mills were suffering. Many found it hard to compete against cheap imports.

A year before Smithfield opened, Harriett & Henderson Yarns had laid off many of its 250 workers. Southern Dyeworks and Crown Hosiery had closed. Dimension Apparel had filed for bankruptcy protection.

But even with an unemployment rate hovering above 12 percent, some Bladen County residents didn't want the plant.

In 1991, a small but vocal group filed lawsuits against the state, trying to block Smithfield from opening. Their main contention: The plant would pollute the Cape Fear River.

Paul Butler was dumbfounded. Butler, then director of the county's Industrial Development Commission, couldn't understand how people could fight against an industry offering such economic promise.

"Smithfield," Butler said in January 1991, "will be like the answer to a prayer for Bladen County."

Smithfield officials had told Butler that the plant would employ 431 people on the day it opened.

"We've got the industry in our hands if the people will just support it," Butler said. "The people here have to realize we have got to diversify our economy and turn towards using our agricultural base that we have here in the county."

Not even Butler realized just how big an impact Smithfield would make.

Smithfield spokesman Jerry Hostetter said an estimated 1,200 people worked at the plant the day it opened, nearly three times as many as Butler had expected. The number of original plant workers was almost equal to the number of…