Livestock and Poultry: Other Colonists Who Changed the Food System of the Chesapeake Bay

Cuker, Benjamin E.

The introduction of domesticated animals into the Chesapeake Bay regions’ food system had profound consequences for the health of the ecosystem and its people. Draft animals provided the labor to clear and cultivate the majority of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed by 1900. Pigs brought by English colonists became important sources of food for both the settlers and native peoples. Initially, introduced chickens played a persistent but minor role in the food system. This changed with the development of the chicken for meat (broiler) industry on the Bay’s Delmarva Peninsula in the 1920s. The broiler industry pioneered the use of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and vertical integration of all aspects of production, a model now dominating the entire livestock enterprise. This propelled a 50% rise in per capita consumption of animal-based foods and attendant rise in human diseases, particularly coronary artery disease. Industrialization of chicken also increased its share of the animal products market sevenfold. The broiler industry pioneered the use of antibiotics as growth promoters, resulting in development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Poultry workers face various health problems, including increased rates of respiratory disease and certain cancers. The poultry industry is the major source of Salmonella poisoning. Broiler chickens suffer crowded and polluted conditions in CAFOs. These CAFOs dominate the landscape of the Delmarva, producing air and water pollution. Nitrogen as a waste product from the industry reaches the Bay and is a major source of eutrophication.