Moorefield Poultry Processing Plant, West Virginia

The more than 1,800 workers in this plant slaughter, process, and pack one million pounds of meat per day (1.7 million chickens per week). The plants capacity was doubled in 1993 by WLR Foods Inc., which later merged with Pilgrims Pride to become the second-largest U.S. poultry producer. Chicken from this 265,000 square foot facility is used domestically by fast-food chains and shipped overseas to 64 countries, including China and Jamaica. During the 1990s, the size of the poultry industry in West Virginia tripled, making it the biggest agricultural crop in the state. Chickens are raised on contract by hundreds of farmers throughout the Potomac Valley; typical chicken houses contain 20,000-30,000 birds. The industry generates about 155,000 tons of chicken droppings per year, and 2,000 tons of carcasses from chickens that die before butchering.