FOOD

Factory Farms in Illinois

Fact Sheet • February 2011

O ver the last two decades, small- and medium-scale livestock farms have given
way to factory farms that confine thousands of cows, hogs and chickens in tightly
packed facilities. In Illinois, there were 3.9 million hogs, 150,000 beef cattle, 12,400
dairy cows and 4.9 million chickens on the largest operations in 2007, according to
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture. Illinois ranks fourth in the
United States in factory-farmed hogs.

health, economic and food safety problems. Tens of thou-

sands of animals can generate millions of tons of manure
annually, which pollutes water and air and can have health
repercussions on nearby communities. Consumers in dis-
tant markets also feel the impacts, either through foodborne
illness outbreaks or other public health risks, or through
the loss of regional food systems. As consumers saw dur-
ing the 2010 egg recall, food safety problems on even a
few factory farms can end up in everyone’s refrigerators.
Even the producers are not benefitting from this system of
production because they are not getting paid much for the
livestock they raise.

The rise of factory farming was no accident. It resulted from

policy choices driven by big agribusinesses, especially
meatpackers and processors that dominate the links in the
food chain between livestock producers and consumers.

Total Factory-Farmed Animals in Illinois

Concentration of factory farms in Illinois, taken from

factoryfarmmap.org. Dark red indicates the most severe density.

The silos and gentle meadows pictured on the labels of the

food most Americans buy have little relation to how that
food is actually produced.

The significant growth in industrial-scale, factory-farmed

livestock has contributed to a host of environmental, public Source: USDA.
The Average Size of a Factory-Farm Layer Operation

614,000

821,526
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000

National Illinois
Source: USDA.

Pork
Hog farms have grown dramatically in recent years, with
thousands of hogs packed into confinement barns on most
facilities. In many regions, hog producers have few poten-
unsafe water, reduced air quality and depressed economies.
tial buyers for their hogs. This economic pressure has led
Instead of benefitting, consumers face foodborne illness
many hog producers to “get big or get out.”1 The rise of fac-
outbreaks and public health threats like antibiotic-resistant
tory hog farms is noteworthy because it happened recently
bacteria, and fewer real choices about how their food is
and quickly. In 1992, fewer than a third of commercially
produced.
raised hogs were raised on farms with more than 2,000 ani-
mals;2 by 2007, it was 95 percent of hogs.3 Food & Water Congress, regulatory agencies and state goverments need to
Watch found the number of factory-farmed hogs in Illinois put a stop to the policies that have allowed these facilities
grew by 22 percent to 3.9 million between 1997 and 2007. to proliferate. They must create and enforce farm and food
policies that allow farmers to make a living and do not
The tremendous amount of manure produced on hog fac-
harm communities, the environment or public health.
tory farms is stored in lagoons and applied — often over-
applied — to cropland. Smaller hog operations can safely
Take action: Go to www.factoryfarmmap.org to learn more
apply all the manure to crops as fertilizer, but large opera-
about factory farms in Illinois and to take action to stop the
tions produce so much that some has to be shipped off-
spread of factory farms.
site.4 In the Upper Midwest, where farmland freezes solid
during the winter, manure applied to frozen fields quickly
runs off into local waters. When lagoons spill or leak or
manure is over-applied to farmland, it can run off into local Endnotes
waterways. In 2008, the Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency investigated an estimated 90,000-gallon manure 1 Carpenter, Dan. “The high price for Earl’s pearls.” Indianapolis Star.
spill from a 6,000-head Adams County hog facility after February 10, 2008
2 Key, Nigel and William McBride. USDA ERS. “The changing eco-
construction equipment broke a manure pipe that spilled nomics of U.S. hog production.” ERR-52. December 2007 at 5.
waste into Cedar Creek.5 3 USDA NASS. 2007 Census of Agriculture. 2009 at Table 20.
4 MacDonald, et al. USDA ERS. “Manure Use for Fertilizer and En-
ergy.” Report to Congress. June 2009 at 13.
Eggs 5 Shriver, Melissa. “Hog manure spill in Adams County.” KHQA.
November 11, 2008; “Authorities say manure spill under control.”
Almost all eggs are produced on large-scale operations Associated Press. November 13, 2008.
with hundreds of thousands of layer hens in each facility. 6 Dr. Shane, Simon. “2008 Egg Industry Survey.” Watt Egg Industry.
A handful of egg companies produce a large proportion of Vol. 114, No. 3. March 2009.
the eggs most Americans eat. In 2009, the four largest firms
owned 30.2 percent of the laying hens in production.6 The
number of laying hens on factory farms in Illinois increased
by 75 percent between 2002 and 2007, to a total of 4.9
million birds. The average size of Illinois egg factory farms
For more information:
nearly doubled between 1997 and 2007, to more than
web: www.foodandwaterwatch.org
821,000 hens, a third larger than the national average of
email: info@fwwatch.org
614,000.
phone: (202) 683-2500 (DC) • (415) 293-9900 (CA)
Factory farms cause extensive environmental damage and
leave communities with fewer independent family farms, Copyright © February 2011 Food & Water Watch