Leaders of North Carolina’s pork producers are urging the General Assembly to protect our industry’s progress in renewable energy.Executives from Smithfield Foods and Prestage Farms contacted legislative leaders on the issue this week. They said the state’s renewable energy program is important to their growers’ work.Dennis Treacy, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer for Smithfield, said “manure to energy” is part of the future for the company. He met with legislative leaders in Raleigh.Treacy told The News & Observer “that he hopes any changes do not set back efforts to grow capacity for alternative sources of energy.”He added that Smithfield is “very close to finalizing several significant renewable energy project agreements” in North Carolina.John L. Prestage, Senior Vice President of Prestage Farms, wrote in an open letter to legislators that “our company wants our state to be a leader in agriculture and clean energy.”He added, “Unfortunately, the recurring efforts to repeal or weaken North Carolina’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards (REPS) are sidelining hundreds of millions of dollars in investments for our state. This is unnecessary, especially when this policy is achieving positive results.”Read more here.