WHQR’s “The Newsroom” podcast features my environmental series “CAFO Country.” It’s a deep dive into North Carolina’s hog and poultry industry. The business is a major economic driver for the state, but also the source of serious environmental concerns. Also in the podcast, WQHR host Ben Schachtman sat down with reporter Lisa Sorg of Inside Climate News to catch up on her latest reporting on CAFOs. LISTEN HERE>
North Carolina is a national leader with more than 8 million hogs and close to a billion chickens and turkeys in production. Most are raised on an industrial scale, in what are known as “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs. These farming operations are a major economic driver for the state — but they also produce tons of waste, alter the landscape, and present new environmental challenges.
You can find more, including individual segments, here: CAFO Country: WHQR’s series takes a closer look at concentrated animal feeding operations in North Carolina
You can find Lisa Sorg’s reporting from Inside Climate News here: Trump Cancels Study on Health Impacts of Industrialized Hog Farms That Produce Biogas
My work for WHQR came thanks to a grant from the Fourth Estate Fund. That work included the 2024 series “Rising Waters: A series focusing on the changing climate’s impact on North Carolina’s coast.” In that project, I looked at issues ranging from beachfront houses falling into the ocean, to the rising cost of stabilizing North Carolina beaches, to the increasing frequency of high-tide flooding.
David Boraks 