FOOD

Factory Farms in North Carolina

Fact Sheet • January 2011

O ver the last two decades, small- and medium-scale livestock farms have given
way to factory farms that confine thousands of cows, hogs and chickens in tightly
packed facilities. In North Carolina, there were 10.1 million hogs, 13,800 dairy cows
and 46.9 million chickens on the largest operations in 2007, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. North Carolina ranks second in the
nation in factory-farmed hogs and sixth in factory-farmed broiler chickens.

The silos and gentle meadows pictured on the labels of

Total Factory Farm Animals in North Carolina
the food most Americans buy have little relation to how
that food is actually produced. The significant growth in
industrial-scale, factory-farmed livestock has contributed
to a host of environmental, public health, economic and
food safety problems. Tens of thousands of animals can
generate millions of tons of manure annually, which pol-
lutes water and air and can have health repercussions on
nearby communities. Consumers in distant markets also
feel the impacts, either through foodborne illness outbreaks
or other public health risks, or through the loss of regional
food systems. As consumers saw during the 2010 egg re-
call, food safety problems on even a few factory farms can
end up in everyone’s refrigerator. Even the producers are
not benefitting from this system of production because they
are not getting paid much for the livestock they raise.

The rise of factory farming was no accident. It resulted from

policy choices driven by big agribusinesses, especially Source: USDA.
meatpackers and processors that dominate the links in the
food chain between livestock producers and consumers.
Pork
Hog farms have grown dramatically, with thousands of
hogs packed into confinement barns. In many regions, hog
producers have few potential buyers for their hogs. This
economic pressure has led many hog producers to “get big
or get out.”1 The rise of factory hog farms is noteworthy be-
cause it happened recently and quickly. In 1992, less than
a third of hogs were raised on farms with more than 2,000
animals;2 by 2007, it was 95 percent of hogs.3

There are more factory-farmed hogs (10.1 million) than

people (9.4 million) in North Carolina. The number of fac-
Concentration of factory farms in North Carolina, taken from tory-farmed hogs in North Carolina increased by 590,000
www.factoryfarmmap.org. Dark red indicates the most severe density. from 1997 to nearly 10.1 million in 2007. The average
hog factory farm in the state held more than 6,200 hogs in
2007, larger than the national average.
Over the past two decades, independent hog producers
that sell their livestock on open markets have nearly disap-
peared in the face of massive consolidation in the pork
industry. Nationally, two out of three hogs are slaughtered
by the four largest pork processors. In the 1990s, lenient
environmental and zoning rules attracted large pork pro-
ducers to North Carolina. The number of hogs in the state
quadrupled between 1988 and 2010, but the number of
farms raising hogs fell by more than 80 percent.
Since the 1990s, Smithfield Foods has devoured its com-
petitors. With the 2000 acquisition of Murphy Farms,
Smithfield became the largest hog producer in the country.
In 2006, Smithfield purchased the second-largest hog pro-
ducer and sixth-largest pork processor, Premium Standard
Farms. After the merger with Premium Standard Farms,
Smithfield controlled an estimated 90 percent of the hog
market in North Carolina.
The tremendous amount of manure produced on hog
factory farms is stored in lagoons and applied — often
over-applied — to cropland. Smaller hog operations can
safely apply all the manure to crops as fertilizer, but large
operations produce so much that some has to be shipped
off site.4 The more than 2.2 million hogs on factory farms
in Duplin County, North Carolina, produce twice as much
untreated manure as the sewage from the New York City
metropolitan area. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd flooded 50
lagoons and three of them burst, releasing of millions of
gallons of manure. Approximately 30,500 hogs, 2.1 million
chickens and 737,000 turkeys drowned.
Poultry
Chicken meat comes from billions of chickens raised on
large-scale broiler chicken operations where farmers raise
birds on contract for the few poultry processing compa-
nies that dominate the industry. The scale of poultry farms
has grown rapidly, as growers try to eke out a living by
increasing the volume of birds they produce. The number
of factory-farmed broiler chickens more than doubled in
North Carolina from 34.7 million in 1997 to 79.7 million
in 2007. The average-sized operation grew by 20.5 percent
from 126,000 in 1997 to more than 152,000 in 2007.
Large poultry companies control every step of broiler pro-
duction — they own the birds from the egg to the grocery
store. The companies exert tremendous pressure on the
farmers that raise the birds, often under abusive contracts
that dictate to farmers how to raise the chickens and then
collect the birds when they have reached their full weight.5
About half of growers only have one or two processors
nearby, so they have little choice but to accept whatever
terms the companies offer, 6 including requiring significant
upgrades to their farms to secure contracts.7 New broiler
houses often cost between $350,000 and $750,000 for the
two houses that most growers use.8 The contracts do not
pay more to the farmers to make these required upgrades.9
The Average Size of a Factory-Farm Hog Operation
5,144
6,276
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000
National North Carolina
Source: USDA.
Many contract poultry growers barely break even.10 Poultry
growers lost money for 10 of the 15 years between 1995
and 2009.11
Factory farms cause extensive environmental damage and
leave communities with fewer independent family farms,
unsafe water, reduced air quality and depressed economies.
Instead of benefitting, consumers face foodborne illness
outbreaks and public health threats like antibiotic-resistant
bacteria. Consumers also end up with fewer real choices
about how their food is produced.
Congress, regulatory agencies and state goverments need to
put a stop to the policies that have allowed these facilities
to proliferate. They must create and enforce farm and food
policies that allow farmers to make a living and do not
harm communities, the environment or public health.
Take action: Go to www.factoryfarmmap.org to learn more
about factory farms in North Carolina and to take action to
stop the spread of factory farms.
Endnotes
1 Carpenter, Dan. “The high price for Earl’s pearls.” Indianapolis Star. February
10, 2008
2 Key, Nigel and William McBride. USDA ERS. “The changing economics of
U.S. hog production.” ERR-52. December 2007 at 5.
3 USDA NASS. 2007 Census of Agriculture. 2009 at Table 20.
4 MacDonald, et al. USDA ERS. “Manure Use for Fertilizer and Energy.” Report
to Congress. June 2009 at 13.
5 Taylor, C. Robert. Auburn University. “The Many Faces of Power in the Food
System.” Presentation at the DOJ/FTC Workshop on Merger Enforcement.
February 17, 2004 at 6.
6 MacDonald, James M. USDA ERS. “The Economic Organization of U.S.
Broiler Production.” EIB-38. June 2008 at 13.
7 American Antitrust Institute’s Transition Report on Competition Policy: Chapter
8 Fighting Food Inflation through Competition. 2008 at 304.
8 MacDonald, James M. and William D. McBride. USDA ERS. “The Transforma-
tion of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and Risks.” EIB-43. January
2009 at 7 and 18.
9 Moeller, David. Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG). “Livestock Produc-
tion Contracts: Risks for Family Farmers.” March 22, 2003 at 5.
10 MacDonald, James M. USDA ERS. “The Economic Organization of U.S.
Broiler Production.” EIB-38. June 2008 at 22, 24.
11 Taylor, C. Robert and David Domina. “Restoring Economic Health to Contract
Poultry Production.” May 13, 2010 at 9.
For more information:
web: www.foodandwaterwatch.org
email: info@fwwatch.org
phone: (202) 683-2500 (DC) • (415) 293-9900 (CA)
Copyright © January 2011 Food & Water Watch