North Carolina industrial poultry farm locations disclosed for the first time

· Climate · United States

Inside Climate News reports that the locations of North Carolina's industrial poultry farms had been kept secret until now. The article begins with a complaint the US Environmental Protection Agency received through its National Response Center a few days before Christmas in 2023, in which a caller said a horrible smell had hung in the air for almost a week and was making people throw up, according to state records. The caller suspected the odor's source. The disclosure gives residents, researchers and regulators a first look at where these operations sit relative to communities. The items do not state how many farms were mapped or name the companies that own them. The release feeds a wider push for transparency about where large livestock operations are sited and what they emit.

Why it matters：Site-level transparency is a precondition for communities and regulators to assess emissions and health risks from large livestock operations, a fight playing out across several US states.

Key points

  • The disclosure follows a 2023 odor complaint logged by the EPA's National Response Center.
  • A caller said the smell had lasted almost a week and was making people throw up.
  • The locations had previously been kept secret.

Sources (original reporting)

More stories from this day