The farmers are chafing against Gov. Larry Hogan’s rules, imposed last year, to cut phosphorous runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. The manure from chicken operations is a major source of that runoff, but small contract farms say they can’t handle the burden and are asking the costs be foisted onto someone else.
Carole Morison, a chicken farmer from Pocomoke, was under contract with Perdue Farms for 23 years. During that time, all the chickens she raised on her farm came from Perdue, but the company did not pitch in to get rid excess waste.
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16 comments:
Evidently, this "Cub" "political journalism" reporter's "beat" does not include the Conowingo Dam.
Good! The farmers shouldn't have to worry about manure disposal. It should be up to the companies they contract for. You know it's a worthless burden otherwise the companies would claim ownership for it like they do with the chickens. Seriously if you think the companies are leaving the manure to the farmers out of the goodness of their hearts you are clueless.
Because this article is about manure 9:49 and not the Conowingo Dam which gets plenty of blame in the media. To even suggest that the politicians, media, whatever are downplaying the Dam's contribution to Bay pollution and blaming farmers instead is not accurate.
10:15 Not true at all. You will never here CBF criticize the Conowingo Dam's role if the Bay's woos.
We need to ask ourselves why the Bay's "watchdog" won't identify the biggest source of pollution and instead always targets Maryland farmers.
10:47 use Google. All kinds of criticism by the CBF toward the Dam out there including and not limited to their own website where they devote a whole separate page to the Dam itself.
There is no good reason why anyone would be against this.
I have to wonder what those farmers are thinking....
They want to run their own business, but want some else to pay for some of their costs?
Who do they think they are? Wal-Mart?
Something funny
When the chicken is alive in the poultry house they belong to the
Poulty Companies
If that chicken dies in the poultry house it immediately belongs
to the Poultry Grower
Go Figure!
LOL Imclain. I'm sure your comment will go right over the heads of many but I get it. Walmart another success story to the delusional and low information. The tax payers are supplementing Walmart's employees to the tunes of 10's of billions a year in this country.
Because the grower is contracted to supply meat, not manure or carcasses.
Well 11:16 big companies have seen to it that many rules and regulations were put in place so as to limit competition. Oh how they feign outrage when another regulation is put in place. They are such liars. They love regulation and are only fooling the low information. Because of the lack of competition and no independent processing plants left the farmers have no choice but to become owners of a chicken when they die. Same with the manure.
"Anonymous said...
Because the grower is contracted to supply meat, not manure or carcasses.
February 4, 2016 at 11:33 AM"
Huh? Don't be silly. You sound ridiculous. This has nothing to do with what they are contracted to supply. It has to do with ownership responsibilities. No one is even suggesting that the farmers supply the companies with manure or any carcasses. Only that they take responsibility for what they own. Doesn't mean they have to take it. Only means they have to take responsibility for getting rid of it.
10:15 - I thought the article was FOR THE BAY - when I read this, "Lawmakers said the health of the Chesapeake Bay depends on getting the balance between environment and small farms right." I realized it is not about manure - it is about "political journalism".
I understand 12:14. A lot of people do believe that the farmers are unfairly targeted by those interested in cleaning up the Bay. They aren't. Everyone's a target from the farmers on down to business owners (rain tax), developers having to put in storm water management, homeowners who can't get septics now and those who are subject to the flush tax. The Bay is once again a mess. A different kind of mess than what it was in the 70's when you couldn't swim in it without getting a black tar substance on your skin. We used to remove it with gasoline until we gave up swimming in the bay altogether. That mess was cleaned up and all was good up until the 90's the algae took over. I believe this is caused by phosphorus which is only traced to chicken manure. The problem I have is everyone is pitching in one way or another except for the companies.
11:33 Go and read the bill's text. No one is saying the companies should be supplied with the manure only that they pay the cost of properly disposing of the excess manure on their contract farms. They can contract out another company to do this if they so desire and never have to come in contact with it. I agree your comment makes no sense. It has cost the taxpayer millions of dollars to handle the excess manure. It's fools like you who think we are getting an inexpensive product in chicken based solely on what you pay for it in the grocery store.
Perdue stopped this reasonable measure for many years by supporting Democrat pols - Jimmy was a big donor too -- and now that there's a Rep. governor who realizes that it's more important to do what's right, things are changing.
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