Source: ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP, 2/13/19

Although North Carolinians’ attention has rightly been focused on the state’s dense concentration of factory swine farms – concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, which produce 10 billion gallons of bacteria-laden, liquefied hog waste per year – the state’s poultry industry has grown dramatically with little notice. In a state long known for industrial hog production, new EWG research reveals there are now more than twice as many poultry CAFOS as swine operations in North Carolina.

The news is particularly relevant as state regulators debate the terms of the state permit regulating swine waste management. If you’re setting standards for pigs, you can’t ignore the enormous recent growth of the poultry industry that has largely flown under the radar. 

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