Special Opinion by Nicki Tiffany
Tourism on the Eastern Shore has steadily increased over the past few years as people are looking for more ways to “get back to nature” and find quiet refuges from the hustle and bustle of busy lives. My husband and I moved here because of the great hiking, canoeing/kayaking, fishing, biking, birdwatching, camping, etc., and we love showing it off to friends and family when they visit.
Unfortunately, not too far off that beaten path, especially on the upper Shore, visitors and residents are confronted with huge industrial chicken houses, and all of the pollution that goes along with them: air/smell, runoff into the streams and bay or ocean, unsightliness, etc., which may give them second thoughts about eating those oysters or blue crabs at the restaurants later on. How disappointing!
Although I understand the economic ramifications of locating the CAFOs and processing plants here on the Shore, the jobs generated, etc., there must be better practices put in place to manage the effects of these places! Starting to use the Columbia Aquifer is a good beginning. However, if Tyson truly wants to be a “good neighbor” on the Shore, there are many more steps that need to be taken, including all chicken farmers using more sustainable practices.
Please let’s keep the Eastern Shore a great place to visit so that others can share our natural beauty.
About the Author
If you’d like to DO something about it, join us for the World Water Day Rally on March 22 (see post about it in today’s Cape Charles Mirror).
The generation of the waste products from chicken production can be reduced only when the integrator, Perdue or Tyson, cuts the number of chickens they are raising for slaughter. How can that be achieved except by reducing our consumption chicken? In the meantime, the farmers will continue the accumulation of manure, the ammonia gas will be expelled from the houses, the birds will need to be watered, and the processing plants will expel millions of gallons of waste water! Is it too much to ask that you eat less chicken?
Yes, for the vast majority of the populations of Accomack and Northampton Counties, it is. This is their main source of protein. The people that benefit most from chickens, cheap protein and low wages, do not care about your conservation, water, or pollution. Many drink from shallow wells and use outhouses. They do not attend your birding festivals, champagne previews of overpriced antiques, or jump in cold water in Feb.
Dave and Steve, are you both naïve enough to think that all of the chicken produced on the Delmarva peninsula stays just on the peninsula?
All in favor of limiting the production of chicken to just what is consumed in Delmarva?
Wasn’t part of the CSBT project based on the large number of trucks hauling chickend to Norfolk for export?