As Democratic lawmaker Pricey Harrison sees it, North Carolina needs stronger regulation to protect neighbors and the environment from rapidly expanding poultry farms.
But some top Republicans say it’s the poultry industry that needs to be protected.
“Right now, agriculture is taking a beating,” said Rep. Jeff McNeely, an Iredell County Republican who co-chairs the House agriculture committee. “ … This is not a great time to go after this industry.”
Those were among the reactions from public officials who’ve read “Big Poultry,” a recent Charlotte Observer/News & Observer investigation into an industry that has been allowed to grow in North Carolina with little regulation, despite evidence of harm to neighbors and the environment.
A spokesperson for Gov. Roy Cooper said the state needs “effective safeguards and careful consideration of the environmental and community impact of large farms.”
“Our poultry growers play a critical role in feeding America and supporting our strong agricultural economy, but we should prioritize a review of existing rules to see that regulators have the tools necessary to protect the health and well-being of all communities,” Press Secretary Sam Chan said.
Poultry farms, the state’s largest agriculture industry, raise more than 1 billion chickens and turkeys each year. The chickens raised in North Carolina produce about 2.5 billion pounds of manure annually — more than the amount of waste produced by 7.5 million humans, the newspapers’ investigation found.
The manure from those farms can pollute waterways, while the stench and other nuisances from farms disrupt the lives of neighbors.
But N.C. regulators rarely inspect the state’s roughly 4,700 industrial poultry farms. They can’t track where most of the waste goes. In fact, they don’t even know where most of the farms are.
Many other states, including South Carolina and Georgia, disclose more information about poultry farms and have put in place more rules to protect neighbors and the environment.
Should NC put more restrictions on farms?
Harrison, a Guilford County Democrat who is a vice chair of the House environment committee, says it’s time to better regulate the industry — or at least to conduct a study to better understand the scope of the problems.
“But we aren’t doing anything, and that’s appalling to me,” she said. “We’ve really abdicated our responsibility.”
Harrison and other Democrats sponsored legislation in 2021 that would have required poultry farmers to submit their waste management plans electronically each year to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources. The bill wasn’t voted on.
She said she plans to refile that bill “and maybe enhance it with a few more of these considerations you all raised that need to be addressed.”
Chicken and turkey production in North Carolina increased by 33% in the past two decades, with more than half of that growth coming in the past five years.
In some rural counties like Anson, Robeson and Duplin, where many new poultry farms have been built in recent years, neighbors complain about the overwhelming stench that sometimes wafts from the 500-foot-long barns, and about the flies, vultures and truck traffic those barns have brought to their communities.
Some also say they developed respiratory problems after farms were built nearby. Research in Pennsylvania found that those who live near poultry farms have an increased risk of contracting pneumonia.
But Rep. Mark Brody, a Republican who represents parts of Anson and Union counties, says he rarely hears such complaints and sees little need to change the way the industry is regulated.
He acknowledged that the smell from poultry farms can occasionally be strong. “Every now and again, I’ll drive past one and say, ‘My gosh,’ ” he said.
But he said the benefits from such farms outweigh the problems.
“North Carolina is an agricultural state,” he said. “A lot of our income is dependent on agriculture. It’s not reached the point where people are so concerned about agriculture that they want to put a lot of restrictions on it.”
Rep. Robert Reives, the leader of North Carolina House Democrats, said he believes that every player in an industry should be subject to the same rules. The state’s hog farmers need to obtain water quality permits, Reives said, so it’s worth considering whether to require the same from poultry farmers.
Reives also agreed with the statement from Cooper’s office that a review of existing rules could help lawmakers better understand the industry.
“You need to make sure that you’re doing everything that you can to protect health and wellbeing,” Reives said.
‘We’re better than that’
The newspapers’ investigation showed how North Carolina lawmakers have steadily supported bills that help the poultry and hog industries, while blocking legislation that might hinder them.
A 2013 bill introduced by two House Republicans, for instance, would have allowed North Carolina counties to adopt zoning to govern some large-scale poultry farms, but the bill went nowhere. An identical 2017 effort met the same fate.
Brody, who chairs the House local government committee, expressed little enthusiasm for giving local governments more control over where farms are built.
“If you give locals control over agriculture, sometimes locals will want you to do things they want, as opposed to what the market is demanding,” he said.
Harrison sees it differently.
“I think the zoning piece needs to get fixed,” she said. “ I don’t know if we’ll ever get that fixed because the legislature seems to be going in the exact opposite direction on local government controls and constraints.”
McNeely, whose family runs a Statesville company that makes feed for poultry and livestock, says he wants lawmakers to support an industry that provides jobs, food and income for North Carolinians.
“I will continue to work together with our poultry farmers and poultry industry to help feed a hungry world,” he said in a statement.
In an interview, he said he feels the newspapers’ stories were an “attack” on an industry that is already facing financial and labor challenges.
Many of the industry’s costs have soared in recent years, he said. And avian flu has killed millions of birds.
“I commend the poultry industry for keeping us fed during an unbelievably trying time,” he said.
The newspapers’ investigation showed how the contract poultry farmers who raise birds for multi-billion-dollar poultry companies are often left with massive debts and unreliable income. The companies typically provide no guarantees about the number of chicks they will supply farmers, the health of those birds and the quality of feed they will provide — all things that affect how much farmers are paid.
Harrison said she understands the pressures on farmers. “But this is international, multi-billion-dollar industrial polluters,” she said. “This isn’t your average farm.”
She said she was appalled to read that many other states, including South Carolina and Georgia, were regulating the industry more closely than North Carolina.
“That’s embarrassing,” she said. “We’re better than that as a state.”
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(Observer database editor Gavin Off contributed to this article.)
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