“Big Chicken” and the Struggle for Delmarva Quality of Life
Kathy Phillips • October 27, 2020
I am a Waterkeeper on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. For the past 13 years I have been working tirelessly to protect my waterways and my local communities from the pollution and public health impacts of industrialized poultry production (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations - CAFOs) on the Eastern Shore.
The executives, lobbyists, and public relations spokespeople who work for “Big Chicken” in the Chesapeake region are quick to hide behind the small farmers they contract with to grow their chickens. Yet today these small farmers struggle under severe contractual obligations and competition from a newer, corporate model of contract grower.
The political power of the big companies like Perdue, Tyson, and Mountaire externalizes their pollution clean-up costs and internalizes the profits that have put the health of our local waterways and our communities that depend on clean water and clean air at such risk.
As this industry has grown, so has the decline in water quality, but more importantly so has the decline of our way of life on the Shore. Small farms have been consolidated into huge tracts of corn and soybean production. Independent farmers, once the backbone of a vibrant diverse agricultural economy, are now few and far between. They struggle to get their fair share of subsidies and support in order to compete against an industrialized agricultural system and agriculture agencies that perpetuate mass chicken production.
As the industry has grown so too has a system of institutional racism on the Delmarva peninsula. Most people can’t really define “institutional racism.” Is it discrimination in hiring? Is it discriminatory police profiling? Is it calling the cops when a black bird watcher asks you to leash your dog? Well, maybe. And just maybe it is here on Delmarva in ways you can’t imagine.
Environmental Justice communities are one of the harder-to-see aspects of institutional racism. They are communities most often chosen for the building of prisons, the creation of landfills, and the placement of polluting and unregulated industries. They are communities that have an identity, a culture and a structure, but they are frequently poor and frequently populated by racial minorities.
Ten years ago Assateague Coastal Trust began to partner with members of these communities when we recognized that, while these polluting industries affect water quality, they had a more immediate impact on the lives of the people living near them.
It is important to recognize that we can’t have clean water without addressing the system that willingly victimizes one portion of the population for the benefit of another. Fred Tutman, founder of the Patuxent Riverkeeper program, was recently quoted in the Washington Post saying, “I believe if you focus on helping people, you get more people helping and a better environment becomes a byproduct.”
Seven years ago ACT joined forces with the NAACP and community groups protesting a permit that would have allowed three million chickens to be grown directly on top of a community’s drinking water source, because the local government didn’t give a second thought to placing this polluting industrial facility smack in the middle of a community that is 80 percent African American. This potential for harm is a prime example of exactly what is meant by the phrase institutional racism.
This partnership resulted in successful campaigns that improved zoning ordinances in three counties so these huge industrial-scale poultry operations would be set back farther from property lines. Continued efforts are taking place in Annapolis to pass the Community Healthy Air Act and bring comprehensive air quality monitoring to the Lower Shore. This collaboration now demands that the state’s permitting agencies require cumulative impact assessments and climate change assessments in their permitting process, with more openness to public comment.
Today the covid-19 pandemic has shined a bright light on the inequities that our Haitian, Hispanic, and African American citizens on Delmarva face at poultry industry workplaces. For a variety of reasons, they have suffered disproportionately from the effects of the pandemic: working while sick, working in crowded conditions that spread the virus, and lacking access to vital medical services. This original collaboration between local citizens, the NAACP, and environmental advocacy groups has now expanded to include the Immigrant Workers Support Group.
The fight to protect our families, our air, our water, and the Delmarva peninsula continues.
Kathy Phillips, the Coastkeeper/Waterkeeper for the Assateague Coastal Trust, is an on-the-water advocate who patrols and protects the Maryland and Northern Virginia Eastern Shore coastal bays, standing up to polluters, and granting everyone’s right to clean water.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
