Critics Call the Poultry Farming System Rigged. Craig Watts Is Fighting to Overturn It

FAIRMONT, N.C.—Craig Watts unlocked a small room made of plywood, flipped on the lights and tapped the photos he had taped to the fuse box.

Tap, tap, tap. One for every child.

Watts, a contract farmer for the poultry giant Perdue Farms, swung open a second door to the barn, where a deafening choir of 30,000 chicks stirred and chirped. He opened a chute for the feed to enter the pans. Because the birds were packed so tightly, they scrambled over one another to reach it.

Watts surveyed the flock. He was paid only for the healthy chicks who, over six weeks, would grow to the ideal weight of 4.25 pounds. Perdue would pick up those perfect chickens, stuff them into cages and truck them to the slaughterhouse.