Restructuring of Hog Farming in North Carolina: Explosion and Implosion

Over the past six years hog farming in North Carolina has undergone a significant restructuring. For most of this century raising hogs was a casual farm activity found throughout the state. During the past decade hog farming has been transformed along industrial-corporate lines. In the process, the swine population has expanded rapidly (exploded) and simultaneously collapsed in geographical bounds (imploded). This paper examines the linkage between the development of the industrial-corporate hog farming regime, the rapid growth in hog populations, and the geographical concentration of hog production in a newly emerging high-density hog production district in the south central area of the Coastal Plain region.