Pork Integrated Model Map: Supply, Ownership and Integration

Hover or tap a state for its figures | Use the section buttons to jump to legal authority, ownership and biogas

About the Pork Integrated Model Map

The Pork Integrated Model Map from Farm Animal Transparency (FAT) carries the analysis the other two pork maps do not: how much of the U.S. hog herd sits in states whose default permit creates no federal record, computed from USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) inventory and each state’s permit regime; the North Carolina legal and statutory record on hog waste; who owns the packers, and how far Smithfield’s vertical integration has loosened; the Align RNG (renewable natural gas) biogas projects; and which FAT label categories would be the only route for any of this to reach a package.

How to read it

Large hog operations are concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). A federal Clean Water Act permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) creates a record in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database; a state-only permit does not. The map is shaded by that permit regime and labeled with each published state’s hogs on hand. Hover or tap a state for its figures. The cards above the map are computed, not typed: each is the inventory of the states in that regime as a share of the national total. The section buttons move between the map, the legal record, ownership and integration, biogas and label disclosure — every section is on the page, none is hidden.

What is not here

Hog inventory by state, the breeding and market split and the full state table are on the Pork Supply Map. Permitted operations, inspection staffing, and inspection, complaint and violation counts for the ten largest hog states, including North Carolina, are on the Pork Enforcement Map. Every figure carries its source and as-of date; a figure FAT has not yet sourced is labeled as such rather than shown as fact.

Related: the Pork Supply Chain maps, Overview of the American Pork Industry and FAT’s paper North Carolina’s Hog CAFOs in 2026. Source data: USDA NASS.