NC Shift From Hogs To Chickens Speeding Up; Poultry Yard Phosphorus Output 4X Hog CAFOs

[hatrack]

EDIT

The state currently has a moratorium on new CAFO hog farms, however, when it comes to poultry, the state's "not regulating this growth and is allowing this to happen in areas already under extreme pressure from swine operations," Soren Rundquist, director of spatial analysis and primary author of the new report, told EHN.

However, Bob Ford, North Carolina Poultry Federation Executive Director, told EHN farmers "care just as much about water quality as the WaterKeepers do." "Farmers get a black-eye a little bit. They do care about the water, that's their livelihood, they drink the water too," he said.

The report estimates North Carolina's 4,700 poultry farms annually generate roughly five million tons of waste, which contains nitrogen and phosphorous that can pollute nearby waterways and people's drinking water. EWG and the Waterkeeper Alliance estimated poultry farms create about 4.8 times more nitrogen waste than hog farms, and 4.1 times more phosphorus waste. State data backs this up: the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in 2014 found poultry generated about three times the nitrogen and six times the phosphorous as hogs.

The poultry waste is "more concentrated in phosphorus naturally" than hog waste, Rundquist said, adding that the poultry "dry waste is also not diluted with water" so can be more nutrient dense. The nutrients can cause algae blooms, harm aquatic life and taint drinking water.

EDIT

https://www.ehn.org/north-carolina-chicken-farm-pollution--2628786902.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

[safeinOhio]

1. I wonder how both compare to lamb and goat?

The only red meat meat in my freezer. I forgot about the road kill deer.

[3Hotdogs]

2. Combine this with vegetative waste and newsprint. Compost it and you have a marketable product.

[NickB79]

3. One of the primary reasons I raise a flock is for compost

A few wheelbarrows of litter mixed into my compost pile and allowed to rot for 6 months creates insanely rich soil for my vegetable gardens and orchard. That stuff is strong!

[Bayard]

4. Its darn good fertilizer

And you can use it right away.

Make it mandatory that chicken farms recycle it.