Broiler chickens (raised for their meat) are produced by the
millions in industrial facilities concentrated in just a handful
of states, and much of the waste they produce ends up polluting
the nation’s waterways. These are just two issues highlighted in
Pew’s new report “Big Chicken: Pollution and Industrial Poultry
Production in America” (PDF). The report compiles and analyzes
50 years of federal and state government data to describe a
business that has been remade by industrialization. Key findings
include: - In less than 60 years, the number of broiler chickens
raised yearly has skyrocketed 1,400 percent, from 580 million in
the 1950s to nearly nine billion today. - Over the same period,
the number of producers has plummeted by 98 percent, from 1.6
million to just over 27,000 and concentrated in just 15 states.
- The size of individual operations has grown dramatically.
Today, the typical broiler chicken comes from a facility that
raises more than 600,000 birds a year. “Big Chicken” describes
the emergenc