Big Chicken on Delmarva, and the road not taken

No one today questions that “Big Chicken” is the economic juggernaut of the Delmarva Peninsula.

In 2021, the Delmarva chicken industry processed 4.2 billion pounds of chicken that was sold in wholesale markets for more than $4.2 billion. The industry reports that it employed more than 17,700 people who earned more than $800 million in wages. Local chicken producers purchased more than $1.3 billion in feed ingredients, much of it from local soybean and corn farms. (Source: Delmarva Chicken Association: Facts and Figures 2021.)

The birth of the modern poultry industry on Delmarva is the stuff of legend.

Back in 1923, Cecile Steele of Ocean View, DE, purchased 50 chicks to replace losses in her laying flock. By mistake, the local hatchery sent her 500 chicks. Rather than send the excess back, the story goes, the enterprising Mrs. Steele contracted with Roland Beauchamp of Berlin, MD, to construct a small shed. Eighteen weeks later, the story goes, she sold the 387 surviving chickens for 62 cents a pound, a

tidy profit, to a local buyer who butchered them and shipped them north to hotels and restaurants.

Fast forward almost 100 years: Chicken is now a low-cost source of meat protein and widely available in supermarkets. Thanks in no small part to the risk-taking and innovations by entrepreneurs like Frank Perdue — a Salisbury, MD, farm boy who was a toddler when Mrs. Steele made her move — chicken is widely available to the American consumer at affordable prices.

But, as Big Chicken grew, the economy of the Delmarva Peninsula was transformed. Possibly, but not necessarily, forever.

Prior to Big Chicken, the Delmarva economy was a diverse agricultural region that exported myriad products to Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Many Delmarva residents earned a living, but did not necessarily get wealthy, raising vegetables and fruits. Newly expanded railroads provided bulk transportation that ensured perishable fruits and vegetables could be grown profitably almost anywhere from Wilmington, DE, to Cape Charles, VA.

Today, those family farms are largely gone, replaced by chicken house CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) and the vast fields of corn and soybeans that are integral to Big Chicken.

Much of the produce consumed in our region is still imported, but from much farther away, in many cases as far as California or South America. This may be economically efficient, which is probably why they are no longer produced in Delmarva — but is that a sustainable business model?

What are the greenhouse gas emissions associated with shipping a load of vegetables from Brazil to Pennsylvania?

What will happen to water resources in the western U.S. if agriculture continues to use almost 80% of available water supplies?

Who is going to pay to clean up the quickly evaporating Salton Sea or the toxic chemical residue that the wind carries off dried-up farm fields?

Should we consider the model of European cities like Frankfurt, which are ringed with greenhouses that supply fresh vegetables to urban populations year-round?

In 20 years, while chicken production has increased enormously, there has been a 45% decrease in the number of chicken growers on Delmarva — because industry has consolidated and demanded larger and larger CAFOs from its contract growers, according to the Environmental Integrity Project. Of the 503 chicken operations that filed reports with the Maryland Department of the Environment, 439 reported that they do not have any cropland. So much for chickens providing supplemental income to the family farm.

The economic benefits of Big Chicken may be self-evident. But, what about the costs?

Of those 17,000-plus jobs, how many are low-wage jobs — on an assembly line in a processing plant or in the hot, dusty environments where vaccination and catching crews work? Of the $800 million in local wages, what percent goes to hourly employees versus poultry company managers and executives?

Of the $1.3 billion that goes to purchase local feed, how much of it goes to modest-scale soybean and corn farmers?

Who pays for disposing the 900 million pounds of chicken manure that is produced annually on Delmarva?

Is there an alternative to Big Chicken?

Food and Water Watch recently published a series of studies in The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies. The organization examined Delmarva farm sales before and after Big Chicken. They concluded that, if the same proportion of land had been used to grow produce, farm sales would have been 65% higher than those of Big Chicken contract growers.

A study from the University of Maryland also concluded that a shift back to fruit and vegetable production from commodity corn and soybeans would be more profitable for growers. Neither study addressed the concentration of income we see in Big Chicken’s economic model.

Much has changed since the poultry industry was born on Delmarva 100 years ago. Today, there is rising interest in local food that is grown sustainably. Studies not-withstanding, it remains to be seen if this can be done economically on Delmarva.

A transition back to the future would not be easy, nor would it happen overnight.

Nevertheless, there are alternatives to Big Chicken. We should not be afraid to contemplate them or to seriously reconsider the road not taken.

Brad Johnson is the former president of ACN Energy Ventures, where he managed equity investments in alternative and renewable electricity. Today he spends much of his time exploring the marshes of the lower Nanticoke River.