Pew Environment Group
http://bit.ly/qGmIn9
[From the Baltimore Sun's B'More Green blog] A new report says the industrialization of poultry farming over the last several decades is a major source of pollution fouling the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways around the country.
“Big Chicken,” released Wednesday by the Pew Environment Group highlights how poultry production has increased and become more concentrated, taking an environmental toll. And despite heavy government subsidies to farmers to reduce runoff of animal manure from their fields, the report argues tighter limits are needed – including a cap on the density of birds being raised in places like the Delmarva Peninsula…
Poultry industry groups are rejecting criticism in a new report that says modern chicken production practices are degrading the Chesapeake Bay and other waters around the country.
[From the Baltimore Sun's B'More Green blog] The National Chicken Council and U.S. Poultry & Egg Association released a statement saying the criticism of the industry in the Pew Environment Group’s report, “Big Chicken,” is “terribly misplaced” and reflects the group’s bias against the poultry industry…
The Delmarva Poultry Industries Inc. issued a statement saying the report “contains little new information and shows that Pew is not aware of the many positive steps taken by Delmarva’s chicken community in the last decade or longer.”
The Delmarva poultry industry’s share of bay pollution is a fraction of what the report says, according to the DPI statement. It cites a Maryland report saying chicken manure is responsible for just 6 percent of the nitrogen getting into state waters and contends, based on another report, that urban and suburban runoff are bigger sources of the nutrients causing the bay’s dead zone.
