With more than 8.5 billion meat birds and just about 275 million laying biddy in the U.S. , this body politic has quite a caboodle of poulet poop on its hands . Industrial volaille farm produce an unsustainable amount of manure . There ’s only so much volaille bedding material that you’re able to spread on a plain before it runs off and pollutes waterways , and there are only so many holding sphere one farm can sensibly build .
In Maryland , the declamatory poulet universe on the Eastern Shore has long been tagged as a source of defilement for the threatened Chesapeake Bay . So in spring 2015 , when Perdue , AgEnergyUSA and EDF Renewable Energy proposed a chicken - wastefulness digester for amanure - to - energy project , this voice like a good enough melodic theme . Four novel manure - to - energy project are already in the works , and theMaryland Department of Agriculturehas invested $ 3 million in innovative manure - direction task this class alone . The state has made a commitment to source 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.Poop is moderately renewableand is considered a “ Tier 1 ” resource — right up there with geothermal , solar and wind .
While the bombastic number presented here is the need to do something constructive with the excessive amount of chicken manure , the underlying event is the need to do something with it that wo n’t be further destructive to the environment . That ’s just the problem with the design to burn the manure as fuel , says the nonprofitFood and Water Watch :
“ Incinerating poultry bedding material has proven to be economically ineffective and environmentally damaging , and the structure of these extremely expensiveEnvironmental groups think the idea of converting wimp manure to energy stinks . facilities almost guarantees the expansion of manufactory farm that produce a steady supplying of manure to feed in the incinerator . ”
I do agree that burn poultry manure is n’t environmentally well-disposed ( keep read ) , but I do n’t whole concur with this dot of FWW ’s argument . manufacturing plant farms are here , and as much as they sop up , they ’re not going to go away any time soon . We can raise all the organic , humanistic , lea - based fowl and livestock that we want , but Americans ’ desire for gaudy meat will continue to outflank any of the societal , economic , environmental , human - health and animal - wellness concerns that small-scale - graduated table , sustainably minded farmers continue to preach . But I do n’t think the addition of a manure digester is conk out to bring more manufactory farms to an area .
Poop On Fire
If you ’ve ever depart your poulet coop closed up for too farsighted or have failed to clean it like you should , you get laid about the ammonia smell that can ensue . envisage this harmful core metre thousands of Gallus gallus per industrial - broiler - production b . Now incinerate those toxins .
“ Government scientists in North Carolina determine that poultry bedding burning plants could ensue in in high spirits emissions of carbon monoxide , particulate matter affair , nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide per unit of powerfulness coevals than newfangled ember plants , ” FWW report . “ According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , the type of particulate matter matter produced by incinerators is linked to higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular disease as well as to higher fatality rate . Another byproduct of burning chicken bedding , dioxin , is separate by the National Toxicology Program as a known human carcinogen . ”
It ’s spoilt news all around .
A Problem Of Scale
If you ’ve readHobby Farmsor HobbyFarms.com for any period of time , you already know there are multiple ways of managing the manure from chickens on your small - scale farm or backyard flock . Composting , deep - bedding material bedding , free - ranging and chicken tractor are truly viable poulet - waste matter solutions when you ’re distribute with a few volaille or even a few thousand crybaby . It ’s when you get into the ten - of - thousands of chickens — and more — that farms bomb inresponsible manure direction .
So what ’s the Eastern Shore of Maryland — and every other poultry - production region — to do ? While I ’d like the answer to be “ cut back onfactory farming , ” I know better than to think that ’s actually the answer we ’ll get .
