MDE explained that the poultry houses are all undercover so there isn’t a risk to the Paleo Channel. A question was asked about the comparison of a multi-house poultry farm with a 20 house housing development on private septic systems and the experts shared that the housing development provided a risk due to the waste water from the septic systems. Also stated that the amount of water usage of these poultry houses is so much less than crop growing and there is no declining water level in the aquifers that service Wicomico County.
Questions about the health risks from these farms were asked and the Dr. Mitchell from DHMH stated there is no evidence of cancer clusters being caused by poultry operations. Airborne particulates can be a determent to someone with asthma but the doctor explained it is dependent on the individual and poultry operations can’t be blamed as an overall cause.
This forum was to provide factual information about health concerns and the environment. The other concerns are things involving zoning which is a local issue. The County Council has a meeting scheduled for Monday, March 28, 2016 at 10 AM to address the local issues.
8 comments:
Soooo basically it is screw you citizen we are going forward and well, we will "address" all the issues when and after they arise and we have already poisoned the earth and its surrounding people.
Sorry about the de-valuing of your property and good luck selling it with this in your back yard.
Factual? LOL Who do these bozos think they are fooling? Factual would have been to bring in researchers such as those from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. State bureaucrats are instructed to say what the powers that be want them to say so the bottom line is take whatever they said with a grain of salt.
It's really not like it rocket science or anything. Too much manure is not only bad but is a burden to tax payers statewide.
Small, diversified farms that raise animals as well as other crops have always used manure as fertilizer without polluting water. The difference with factory farms is scale. They produce so much waste in one place that it must be applied to land in quantities that exceed the soil’s ability to incorporate it. The vast quantities of manure can — and do — make their way into the local environment where they pollute the air and water no matter how the politicians and state bureaucrats try and spin it.
Chickens have sucked the life out of this area. Bob Culver said 2000+ jobs are created by the industry but you have to factor in the entitlements. The farmers themselves get all kinds of state grants for this and that including money to plant winter crops to use up the excess manure. Tax payers are paying millions a year to subsidize those companies employees and contractors. I donate to a food pantry in DE and I was told that everyone who uses the service works at the nearby chicken processing plant and it's not only the food pantry they use but they get Medicaid, renters assistance and so on and so on. It all sounds good but these are people who will never be able to afford to buy homes which is the main reason prices have dropped significantly around Wicomico county and they are going to continue to drop. Too much supply and not enough demand. To think that some global Fortune whatever company will ever move here is a pipe dream. This is a new age. People nowadays no matter politician party are more educated and due to the internet things that were kept hidden from the public are no more.
You can't trust politicians and state bureaucrats unless it's Donald Trump who is indebted to no one. Can that be said for the county executive and council members? If they have taken one cent from anyone associated with the chicken industry, what they say is to be dismissed.
The bottom line is for so long some spoke out about the dangers of arsenic and the use of antibiotics in poultry. It was denied ad nauseaum by the chicken companies and those related to the industry. Finally after so much pressure and outcry they claim the chickens are free from both but that is yet to be seen because the way laws are written and the wording in advertisements and all can be deceiving.
They claim there isn't any excess manure and if there weren't then why do they need cover crops paid for by tax payers statewide to use it up. Also they claim they make a good living and we all know if that were true they wouldn't need state money to pay to build manure sheds and cement pads and everything else. The whole system of chicken farming is a sham and I think the farmers should be ashamed of themselves for taking state money. NO better than welfare people!
5:34, Most of us in the industry are highly ashamed of what the industry has become including the subsidies/welfare. That is why the locals are leaving the industry and foreigners are buying in. Has anyone ever seen this much opposition before? DPI/poultry companies keep thinking/saying its only a handful of radicals fueling this movement against them. What's fueling this movement is the years of irresponsibility and dishonesty by these companies. Most of the opposition is people who are still in the industry or have relatives involved so we can't speak out publicly so we work behind the scenes contacting legislators that actually care.
Nobody has answered the question yet of why its OK for the industry to be highly subsidized by the taxpayers!
8:47 I have to laugh about what the area thinks is "economic development." They do back flips and get all jazzed up over festivals and soft ball tournaments, very short term answers with no real results. It's amazing how they think on the eastern shore. The best thing the county could do would be to build a processing plant. Farmers are being subsidized anyway so do it in a way that would be meaningful. The big companies would be outraged but so be it. You would then see many other businesses springing up to support the then truly family INDEPENDENT farmers.
"Nobody has answered the question yet of why its OK for the industry to be highly subsidized by the taxpayers!"
Tax payers paid the bill to the tunes of 100's of millions for companies' losses incurred by an outbreak of Avian Flu out West a couple of years ago also.
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