Agriculture in the United States is in a state of crisis, and there is no better example of this than looking at the corruption of the US poultry industry and its ravaging effects on rural America. A small handful of massive agri-business corporations control over half of the entire broiler chicken industry — the marketing name for the production of chicken meat for human consumption. Through the strategically contrived system of vertical integration, these corporations own, operate and control all the means of production — including the chick hatcheries, feed mills, trucking lines, slaughterhouses, and even the chickens themselves. Farmers are forced into debt through onerous contracts and are required to build and maintain massive poultry house structures, source the birds and feed through the company, and sell the full grown birds back to the company who controls the pricing. Farmers end up with all of the work and all of the risk, and are also left with dealing with the enormous amounts of manure and dead birds that degrade the value of the farmers’ land, along with their own quality of life. In the current US poultry industry, farmers come in last.

Our strategy is to put the Farmers First and to reimagine our food systems in a way that centers the needs of the farmer and the environment. We start by listening to the stories and visions of the farmers and community members, and documenting the conditions of the buildings and the site. We have extensively cataloged the existing Poultry Shed building type — its infrastructure, layout and qualities, in order to be able to quickly determine what type of conversion is most suitable for each specific farmer and location. Our goal is to reuse as much of the existing structure as possible and adapt it to an efficient spatial layout which keeps the cost of renovation low, increases the speed of conversion, maximizes the productivity of the new facility, and allows for future expansion to adjacent buildings.

Controlled Environment Agriculture facilities are engineered to grow food efficiently, year-round, at a low cost, and irrespective of outdoor climate fluctuations and weather-related risks — which farmers well know are becoming increasingly common with each passing year. Fortunately, plants are easier to grow than animals, making these buildings a perfect conversion opportunity for commercial scale crop production. Farmers First conversions use hydroponic growing systems which outperform field grown crop production due to their higher yields per acre, massive water savings, elimination of the use of pesticides, reduced contamination risk, yield consistency and improved crop quality.

Concurrent with the adaptive reuse of the buildings, we have developed an extensive pro forma business model that can further assist the farmer to test and compare the feasibility of various innovative production systems, crop types and conversion tactics. Working with our partner, Animal Outlook, experts in agronomics identify and help secure local markets for the product and assist in finding any financial assistance for the project. Our ultimate goal is to create a turnkey solution to help hundreds of thousands of farmers transition from poultry production to a more sustainable, humane, and profitable business model.

Rural communities in the Southeastern US, where the poultry industry has a tight grip, are particularly impacted by lack of access to healthy, fresh, local foods. This systemic situation compounds the health implications of living around these facilities, such as air quality issues and drinking water contamination. Our research has shown that most produce that the people of Alabama eat is shipped from California’s Central Valley, contributing to its high cost and impact on climate change — due to the fuel necessary for long haul trucking and the large percentage of food spoilage that occurs along the way. When farmers have the option to start growing clean, healthy food on a commercial scale, the entire community benefits by having improved access to local, affordable, nutritious food, as well as to cleaner air and water. With the added benefit of dictating their own terms of production and of sales, farmers who grow food locally can keep their communities healthy and their local economies resilient and strong.

In addition to transforming Poultry Sheds into hydroponic greenhouses, we are also investigating a range of possible shed transformations — from indoor mushroom cultivation and alternative growing systems to direct public access to fresh foods through on site farmers’ markets — to open the range of possibilities for farm transformation. The visionary goal of the FARMERS FIRST project is to bring light, air, sustenance and health into a space formerly filled with darkness, disease, death and despair.