Zoom in and click on points to see location-specific attributes documenting the expansion of the poultry industry in North Carolina between 2008 and 2018. EWG and the Waterkeeper Alliance derived poultry facility locations from high-resolution satellite data and aerial photography. Those locations were tracked in two-or four-year intervals (2008, 2012, 2016 and 2018) to determine when the operation appeared on the landscape.
To estimate animal counts with manure and nutrient outputs, analysts used the number of barns at a facility coupled with data from the North Carolina Agricultural Chemicals Manual and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Ag Census to determine predominant poultry types and their associated metrics. All swine operation location information comes from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, as of January 2018. To see the full methodology, click here.
