In mid-September 2011, a barn in Iowa was added to the growing number of barns taken down by the foam. In the explosion, 1,500 pigs were lost, and one worker was injured.

A layer of surface foam that forms on some manure pits becomes toxic as it acts like a sponge to capture gases, particularly methane. Agitation can break the foam and release the gas.

Pig manure turns to bubbling foam and causes explosions on Midwest farms with one barn leveled and several workers injured… and it could be down to what they are being fed.

The source of these explosions is a strange substance known as gray foam. Pigs have several uses during their life – their manure can be useful as fertilizer. And so, ...

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In what may be the most spectacularly disgusting story of the month, Grist reports on a phenomenon that has killed thousands of pigs on giant industrial hog farms. Farms (OK, “farms”) throughout the ...

North American pig farmers have reported several occurrences in the past year of large volumes of black foam rising from under slatted floors which can produce hazardous gases.