David Boraks

On today's show, WHQR's series CAFO Country, featuring environmental journalist David Boraks, takes a deep dive into North Carolina's hog and poultry industry — it's a major economic driver for the state, but also the source of serious environmental concerns. Plus, we sat down with Inside Climate News' Lisa Sorg to catch up on her latest reporting on CAFOs.

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. They produce tons of waste, alter the landscape, and present new environmental challenges. WHQR's series CAFO Country took a closer look at the issue.

All this week, WHQR has been airing episodes of our series, “CAFO Country,” taking a look at concentrated animal feeding operations. WHQR’s Ben Schachtman sat down with environmental journalist David Boraks, who reported and produced the series, to recap the big takeaways.

The growth of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, has changed the landscape of eastern North Carolina in recent decades. Big companies now depend on North Carolina farmers to supply the hogs, chickens, and turkeys that wind up on grocery store shelves. But what about the farmers? In the final segment of our series "CAFO Country," reporter David Boraks visits a farmer in Goldsboro who has taken over and expanded her family's farm.

This week, WHQR is exploring the growth and impact of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, in our series "CAFO Country." As we reported, eastern North Carolina is a national leader for hog and poultry operations, which bring billions of dollars to the state. Today, reporter David Boraks tours the front lines where neighbors worry about air and water quality. And he hears from industry officials who argue that North Carolina has some of the strictest rules in the country.

In 2007, North Carolina permanently banned new or expanded hog farms that collect waste in lagoons and spray it on fields as fertilizer. The idea was to shift to cleaner disposal methods at these concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. But apart from experiments with converting swine waste to biogas, little has changed. Meanwhile, the more lightly regulated poultry industry has exploded, prompting new concerns about poultry waste. David Boraks has more in the second instalment of our series "CAFO Country."

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. They produce tons of waste, alter the landscape, and present new environmental challenges. Environmental reporter David Boraks has more, in the first of four stories in WHQR's series "CAFO Country."

Featuring reporting from veteran climate and environment reporter David Boraks, "Rising Waters" looks at a range of issues, from coastal properties falling into the ocean, to the rising cost of stabilizing North Carolina beaches, to the increasing frequency of high-tide flooding.

Over the last week, WHQR aired and published our three-part series, Rising Waters — which looked at several different ways climate change is impacting the Carolina Coast and the Cape Fear region. WHQR’s Ben Schachtman spoke with veteran climate reporter David Boraks about his reporting for this series.

In a report released this week, a state and federal task force studying the problem of houses falling into the ocean suggests creating a new state-funded program and finding new funding sources to address properties at risk before they collapse.