The Rise of Industrial-Scale Chicken Production

The broiler industry has changed drastically over the last 50 years and now produces more than 8 billion birds -- an increase of more than 1400% -- despite the loss of 98% of broiler operations over the last 50 years. The typical broiler chicken comes from a facility that produces more than 605,000 birds a year. The majority of these massive operations -- millions of chickens and the billions of pounds of waste they produce -- are concentrated in a handful of states that comprise the American Broiler Belt.