Special to the Cape Charles Mirror by Ken Dufty
October 9, 2016 A recent article in the Eastern Shore News by Carol Vaughn covered a September Accomack County Board of Supervisor’s meeting during which many residents voiced concern over the unprecedented amount of industrial chicken-producing factories that are proposed or under construction throughout the county. Indeed, the room was so packed with residents objecting to the wholesale industrialization of their beloved land, “neighbors and stakeholders spilled into the hallway.”
The article reports that Supervisor Hart, in response to many who spoke at the meeting, made a motion to have the Planning Commission take a harder look at the regulations that are allowing as many as 24 industrial houses on one parcel (once lot lines are erased). Interesting, but not surprising, that no supervisor seconded the motion, and it died on the floor.
I say it is not surprising that the majority of the Accomack Board thumbed their elective noses at the masses (after all, what do those pesky citizens know?) because this is not the first time they turned their backs on their constituents..and judging by the arrogant refusal to take into account the legitimate grievances and fears voiced…it probably will not be the last.
Take for instance the October 18, 1997 headline in the same newspaper which declared “Supervisors decide Temik poses no threat.” In that article by ESN reporter Alfred Edmonds, local environmentalist George Reiger questioned the use of the pesticide Temik on the sensitive Eastern Shore, saying that “wells in Long Island, NY had been polluted by widespread use of Temik on potato (and cotton) fields”.
Image courtesy of stopfactoryfarming.org
In response to Reiger’s concerns, the Board turned to Brian Nault, assistant professor of entomology at the Eastern Shore Agriculture Experiment Station, to give a professional opinion on whether this citizens fears were legitimate. Kinda reminds me of the way the present Accomack Board calls in reps from Tysons or Perdue to give them their undivided attention on the industry’s side of the story. Anyway, Nault convinced the Board that the widespread use of Temik was no problem…after all, the label did say that you should not apply it “if the watertable is less than 25 feet below ground surface!”. The assurance that the use of Temik was no problem on the Eastern Shore was echoed by Extension Agent Jim Belote. Also, Supervisor Wanda Thornton, in dismissing Reiger’s concerns (afterall, he is a treehugger, isnt he?) said she felt “very safe” with the use of Temik. Nault sealed the deal when he testified to the receptive Board that aldicarb (Temik) “has not been shown to cause any long-term or chronic health problems.”
So Reiger was sent packing…outgunned by the people in the know. Fast forward 15 years to 2012 when the EPA slammed their regulatory gavel and finally banned the use of Temik, admitting it had been responsible for the worst known outbreak of pesticide poisoning in North America. It was deemed one of the most acutely hazardous pesticides still used in the US, and it was found that potatoes, citrus and water contaminated by Temik’s residue can result in toxicity levels in children between the age of one and five as much as 800% higher than the EPA’s level of concern for health effects. Indeed, effects of ingesting crops that had been protected from pests by Temik are listed to include gastrointestinal disturbance, unconsciousness, blurred vision, excessive salivation, seizures, disorientation and possibly death, as your reporter wrote nearly 20 years ago. The last possibility listed, at least to this writer, could be characterized as “long term” in contrast to the expert’s assurance.
In Northampton County, the informed and engaged supervisors listened carefully to the chorus of voices concerned about our quality of life, environmental integrity, the future of our burgeoning aquaculture industry and our pristine water quality and protected their charge (us) by passing an amended yet friendly zoning ordinance that reflected the common sense concerns voiced by their constituents.
We present that Accomack County elected officials should take a page from our fine leader’s play book, and apply a little good old fashioned common sense when addressing the issues raised by their citizens regarding this pending environmental catastrophe orchestrated by the chicken industry upon the land and its people. Reflecting on this unfortunate situation gives rise to free-thinking Civil War era writer Robert Ingersoll when he mused “it is a thousand times better to have common sense without an education than to have an education with no common sense.” To this we say, Amen.
NIMBY – Not in my back yard. That is the stance everyone takes when it happens to them or comes to their backdoor. HITS – Heads in the Sand…when it is someone else’s problem. Well, it seems there are a hell of a lot of HITS on the Eastern Shore. By the looks of this empty comment column and response to Ken Duffy’s well written and well researched piece on industrialized farming or the future coming of CAFO’s, poisons, compromised water aquifer, etc., HITS would basically describe perhaps 99% of the Shore population. If I were you folks, I would seriously consider Mr. Duffy’s warnings and perhaps the written warnings from multiple folks in Somerset County, Maryland. Seems that their problems today, will be your problems tomorrow. So, in essence, you HITS of today, will be the screaming NIMBY’s of tomorrow. But, realize something today, tomorrow…it will be too late. And all this time, I seriously thought you folks cared about the pristine beauty of your beloved Eastern Shore. Guess, I must have had my head in the sand….
How can the citizens of the eastern shore eat chicken 4 or 5 times a week and not support the industry that provides the chicken? That shows supreme insanity. Take a look at modern lawn care. One will cut the grass, trim/edge and then blow the dirt/clippings in the street or just broadcast it….anywhere but the yard it came from. Who’s back yard would you prefer these chickens be raised???
It is not a matter of all or none . As in North Carolina , the problem is too much chicken business in one place .
How about Virginia Beach taking some chicken business . They eat chicken across the Bay .
With the passing of Bob Dylan we were reminded again that ” Times are a changin .”
Look at the putrid disaster in the flood plains of our neighbors to the south in North Carolina from hurricane Matthew .
They are swimming in hog urine , hog feces and chicken waste .
Most people enjoy bacon and eggs as well as fried chicken but some uncommon sense must apply to the placement of the farms and the concentration of the farms .
Concentrating chicken houses on the Eastern Shore is a horrible idea . We rely on a sole source aquifer for our fresh water and we are surrounded by oyster and clam farms in our rivers and tributaries .
The contamination of our water supply or the ruination of our shellfish industry by chicken farms would insane .
We do not want ANYMORE chicken farms . Enough is enough .
As a “come-here” from 40 miles north in Somerset County, Md, I write to express my complete support of Messrs.’ Dufty’s and Corcoran’s statements. It is incredible, given the nearness of the low land of Accomack County to the Atlantic and to thee Bay, that the granting of any more CAFO building permits would be allowed.
In addition to the certain increased fouling of ditches, streams, and creeks, Accomack’s schools, clinics, emergency rooms, and hospitals will be strained by the influx of yet more low-skilled persons demanding the services of these facilities. Tyson, Perdue, and non-resident owners of the CAFOs will benefit at the expense of the County’s taxpayers.
“For Sale” signs are everywhere in Accomac and Onancock; the decline of Parksley appears irreversible. What talented business creators–the only kind of persons who can enrich an area– would want to move here, given the developments so well described by Messrs. Dufty and Corcoran?
The County Supervisors would do well to recount the actions of Boston patriots in December 1773 when they saw themselves faced with an intolerable lack of proper representation: they seized British private property–an entire shipment of East India Company tea worth many thousands of dollars–and threw it into Boston Harbor. At their wits’ end, they rightly viewed the destruction of private property as their only recourse, and they started the American Revolution.
The County will inevitably experience future tropical storms. Our County Supervisors should not assume, when Accomack’s residents see their properties devalued by floating dead chickens and the film of animal sewage on flooded roads and in ditches, that these property owners will react passively; rather, they may well resort to the kind of actions that our forefathers took almost 2 1/2 centuries ago in Boston.
I write as a person who owns two farms in Somerset County, and I grew up raising chickens for my father 50 years ago. It is a business completely inappropriate to the lower Peninsula.
Mr. Bell seems to think (or at least, to imply) that the chickens raised in these CAFO will be consumed by residents of the Eastern Shore. The output of viable product will be shipped elsewhere. We will be left with the manure. The owners of the chicken houses are based in Texas. That would seem to be a State large enough to absorb the operations of the CAFO. Alternatively, the owners are Asian and reports are that they plan to export the viable product to Asia. How much more efficient to place the chickens in the area where they will be consumed (as per Mr. Bell’s suggestion.)