This is the world of modern poultry production in the Potomac Valley. It's called vertical integration. They breed birds. They hatch chicks. They decide which farmers get how many chicks, and how much of what kind of feed those chicks are fed.
Integrators also decide how much poultry farmers are paid.
They use a complicated formula that many farmers don't like and many others say they just don't understand. But when the time comes to dispose of chicken waste, farmers are left pretty much on their own. Critics say Homan and hundreds of other Potomac Valley farmers who grow chickens for WLR get stuck with a load of crap - figuratively and literally. The system, critics say, helps WLR get rich, pollutes the Potomac River, and leaves poultry farmers struggling just to get by. A chicken boom Growth of the poultry industry in West Virginia's eastern counties has been a boon for Broadway, Va.-based WLR Foods.