Meat Wagon: Chicken-shit blues

NYT: Maryland poultry CAFOs snuff out Chesapeake oyster industry 8

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries.

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I write this on the second day of December -- one among a string of months that end in "r." That means, for those of us who live near the sea, it's time to consider the oyster, that glorious bivalve mollusc.

In her great essay "Consider the Oyster: Love and Death Among the Molluscs," MFK Fisher notes the "strange cold succulence" of the raw oysters she sampled in her youth in France.

But oysters provide more than just sensual pleasure; they're also packed with nutrients and rank among the most responsible seafood choices a consumer can make. According to Monterey Bay Aquarium, oyster farms can "actually benefit the surrounding coastal waters" because they filter out toxins and don't feed on wild-caught fish.

But even as oysters filter toxins, they can also be overwhelmed by them. Tragically, that is precisely what's happening in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, home to some of the globe's most celebrated oysters. A major culprit, the New York Times reports, is Maryland's massive poultry industry, which churns out some 650 million pounds of manure each year, too much of which leaks into the bay and feeds vast algae blooms that suck oxygen out of the water.

In essence, a delicious, sustainable, and nutrient-dense protein source is being snuffed out so that a flavorless, filthy, and nutritionally suspect one can thrive.

As the Times puts it:

As the phosphorous and nitrogen levels in the bay have grown, so have the algae that deplete oxygen needed by other aquatic life.

In the past two decades, working oystermen on the bay have dropped to less than 500, from 6,000. The crab population has fallen by 70 percent.

Water quality in the Chesapeake Bay continues to decline, despite "more than a decade of spending over $100 million a year in state money on restoration efforts," the Times reports.

Industry apologists claim that meat production gets too much blame for the situation. Not so, says the EPA. Here is the Times:

Storm runoff from urban areas, lawn fertilizers and pollution from cars and sewage treatment plants also play major roles in polluting the bay. But Environmental Protection Agency officials say that agriculture is the largest single source of pollutants and sediment in the Chesapeake Bay, accounting for over 40 percent of the nitrogen and phosphorous and over 70 percent of the sediment.

What's more, sewage treatment plants have already been required to reduce runoff into the bay; and large dairy and hog farms are regulated by a licensing process. But the poultry industry cranks out its waste largely untroubled by government oversight. "[I]n the past two decades, the poultry industry has carved a special role for itself in terms of the oversight it receives," the Times reports; "and it has twice defeated state efforts to impose permits."

State officials are considering new rules that would require the largest poultry farms to apply for permits to handle manure and limit application of manure near streams and ditches. The proposal contains one glaring flaw, from what I can tell. From The Times:

The liability for the manure would fall to the growers who raise the chickens, rather than the larger companies that own the birds, provide the feed and drop off a new batch of chicks every eight weeks.

I actually sympathize with the farmers on this one. They operate under contract with corporate giants like Tyson, Perdue, and Pilgrim's Pride. As those giants get ever bigger, they gain leverage to drive down the price farmers receive for their goods, forcing farmers to scale up to eke out any profits at all. Increased regulatory pressure could drives hundreds of farms out of business.

I hope Maryland does impose draconian rules on poultry pollution -- including stiff fines. But it should focus its attention on the entities that own the birds -- the large poultry packers. And it should invest the proceeds into a fund to help farms transition out of the poultry business and into more sustainable models -- just as Kentucky has helped farms switch from tobacco into diversified local food production.

Such a move could help preserve what's left of Maryland's farmland, while also leading to a revival of the state's production of magnificent oysters.

Pilgrim's Pride waddles into bankruptcy court

Speaking of gigantic poultry companies, Pilgrim's Pride is the biggest of all. It slaughters and packs a jaw-dropping one in four chickens consumed in this country.

More stunning still, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection Monday, squeezed by high corn prices, low chicken prices, and a heavy debt load.

The company swears it's not going belly up, but rather merely seeking better terms from its creditors. Stock market investors seem less than convinced; the company's shares have lost nearly all of their value over the past year, and sank 45 percent Monday.

What can this development mean for the industry? It's too early to say; but as I've written before, a Pilgrim's Pride collapse will almost certainly mean yet more consolidation in the poultry industry. Indeed, Wall Street analysts have hinted that the company's largest rival, Tyson, intentionally drove down chicken prices to push Pilgrim's Pride out of business.

Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

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  1. JMG's avatar

    JMG Posted 5:17 am
    02 Dec 2008

    Victory ChickensThanks, another good post on the horrors of the industrial food system.
    It just shows the insanity of the zoning laws that forbid people from keeping a few laying hens in their yards -- laws that a few of the more progressive places are relaxing.
    What we need -- along with Victory Gardens and clotheslines in every yard -- are "Victory Chickens:"  a movement to get people (and zoning boards) to encourage householders to keep a few hens around for eggs, pest control, and fertilizer.  And those hens can be given to the food banks or missions when they're ready to give the final measure of devotion to fighting these industrial food nightmares.

    The 5% Project



    Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay.

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  2. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 5:54 am
    02 Dec 2008

    I agree with JMG, nice postGovernment has to fix this runoff problem, end of story. I love oyster stew ...
    My daughter drags her chicken coop bedding out front every few months. The neighbors appear with wheelbarrows to haul it to their gardens. The pile is usually gone within hours. Putting a pile of chicken bedding out front of your house in many neighborhoods will get you fined.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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  3. caniscandida Posted 5:13 pm
    02 Dec 2008

    the ecosystem is preciousBivalve molluscs, such as the oysters of Chesapeake Bay, probably fall below the line of sentience that many of us animal-rights promoters consider with great care.  (But cephalopod molluscs, the octopuses, squids and cuttlefishes, are definitely above that line.  Gastropod molluscs, e.g. snails, aka escargots, are probably up there with the cephalopods, but we need to study them more.)
    Still, it is not well done to think of any animal, no matter how far from sentience (oysters in this case), simply as a "resource," who deserve our attention only as an ephemeral source of pleasure.  MFK Fisher is a gem of a writer; but her old Mediterranean friends are not likely to have been great moral examples, when it comes to how to think about the animals that they taught her to eat.
    Anyway, the bay floor's ecosystems are rich, and the over-ample dumping of chicken shit surely is bad news for many animals besides the oysters.  Animal-rights ethics and environmental ethics are united on this issue.
    To say nothing of the chickens ...

    Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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  4. almostaphantom Posted 3:31 am
    04 Dec 2008

    chickens on the bayChicken production is not the problem...its all the people who have moved here and put houses along the shore.  At one time no one lived near the water because there was no flood insurance. NOW there are houses all along the coastline, with green(fertilized)lawns. There are more people living in the area than ever before in history. The area cannot handle that kind of population. As for the drop in watermen, that drop is not necessarily a drop in crabs. I've talked to watermen this year who say there are more crabs than ever, but have quit because of incleased costs and regulations. The crab population is determined by how many are caught. If no one is out there fishing them....of course there appears to be less. Oysters were infected with disease years ago that killed off their population, even before the number of chicken farms that are operating now. Yes, I agree we should grow food on a smaller more humane scale, but don't tilt the facts to get us there.  If these chicken farms all shut down, no one in this country would be eating chicken once a week.

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  5. MickieC Posted 2:04 am
    05 Dec 2008

    Chicken shitI don't understand the problem. Chicken farmers can either compost the manure and sell it at a great profit, or sell it to a company that will do so. Either way the farmers will get rid of the manure w/o harming the bay, it will be used to fertilize the earth and it will add to the farmer's income - something desperately needed since we know they are not the ones making a huge profit.
    As an organic gardener I will take almost any manure available (usually free) from chicken, goats, horses, cows and yes, even emus. I compost it and add it to my sandy soil. The farmers are happy to have it hauled away, sometimes even helping me shovel it into my truck. My pure-sand soil grows amazing veggies and flowers and we're both very happy.
    Put the poultry manure to good use so it isn't pollluting and the farmer's can make a better profit.

    MickieC

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  6. almostaphantom Posted 11:47 pm
    07 Dec 2008

    chicken manureThat is EXACTLY what local farmers do, they spread the manure from the chicken houses on their fields instead of expensive manufactured fertilizer!  I'm telling you there have been chicken houses in this area for decades and decades. The increase in population and the portion of the population that have built houses to the waterline are the problem..not the chickens.

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  7. amazingdrx Posted 12:45 am
    08 Dec 2008

    Sorry compostersComposting or field spreading won't solve industrial chicken CAFO pollution.  That stuff is toxic.
    How so?  Hormone and antibiotic laced chicken poop needs to be biodigested to break down these compounds before it is suitable for organic farming.
    And putting raw manure into the eco-system where other animals feed on it, like mussels, tends to evolve viruses and bacteria that can not only be problematic to other animals, but also to humans.  Witness the possibly dangerous bird-flu.  It's a pig, duck, and human manure/food stream stew incubated disease.
    Put all that manure into a biodigestor and make GHG iffsetting backup energy for a renewable smart grid, and clean, safe, pathogen and agri-chem free organic fertilizer.  That fertilizer also offsets huge amounts of GHG.
    And then feel free to add the high nitrogen organic fertilizer to compost for your garden.  Along with all your green manure (green plant material) and veggie kitchen waste.  Animal product waste ought to be biodigested though.
    I sure like that idea JMG, victory chickens!  And the happy chicken music is a big plus!  Bwaaack..bwaaahh..very soothing.  Come to think of it bio-d, maybe your favorite chicken farmer could put up a chicken-cam?  Grist needs one of these.  Live streaming happy chicken music.  
    Much like Arnie's favorite website, puppycam.

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

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  8. Tom Philpott's avatar

    Tom Philpott Posted 4:22 am
    08 Dec 2008

    Delmarva chicken industryMickie C,

    If human population has grown rapidly in the Chesapeake area, chicken population has grown even faster.
    In the so-called Delmarva Peninsula -- a chunk of land occupied by Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia whose waters flow into the Chesapeake -- production of broilers jumped from 260 million birds in 1965 to 602 million in 1998, the WaPo reports. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/aug99/po ...
    Looks like production has dropped a little since then -- too 566 million birds, by one estimate. Still, that means well more than 10 percent of the chickens grown on U.S. soil come from one little Peninsula off the Chesapeake.
    So, I think it's fair to say that poultry poses a threat to water quality in the Chesapeake. No?
    For the record, it looks like four large companies process the birds grown on Delmarva:

    Allen Family Foods, Inc.

    Mountaire Farms Inc.  

    Perdue Farms Inc.    

    Tyson Foods, Inc.

    Source: http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:DJTeh3cBdWMJ:www.dpic ...

    Victual Reality

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