Big Poultry: How a secretive industry rules the roost in North Carolina
This feature story, a collaboration between environmental and investigative reporters at the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer, is the flagship story from the two papers’ Big Poultry series uncovering how North Carolina’s secretive poultry industry is hurting the state’s environment. The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT selected this series as the 2023 winner of the Victor K. McElheny Award for local and regional journalism.
“North Carolina’s poultry industry has taken flight.” “Farms now stand near the mountains, the coast and the state’s largest cities.” “The state’s largest ag industry raises more than 1 billion chickens and turkeys each year. The birds generate billions of pounds of untreated waste. Some of the pollutants seep into streams and rivers.” “Don’t know much about it? That’s no surprise. The state cloaks big poultry in secrecy.” “Environmental regulators almost never inspect the state’s 4,600-plus poultry farms. They can’t monitor where all the waste goes. They don’t even know where most of the farms are. Neighbors complain about the stench and other nuisances.” “But state laws leave courts and local governments nearly powerless to help.” “Multi-billion dollar companies, critics say, shift financial risk to contract farmers…” “…who sometimes live with massive debt and little income.” “All of that is by design. But what’s the cost?”
No matter which way he turns, Garris drives by some of the roughly 50 massive poultry barns that have sprung up within a mile of his Anson County home.
