Poultry Farming: Unsustainable Practices are Coming Home to Roost
Introduction
‘Stop killing our rivers’, an impassioned plea and title of a report published by the Soil Association. The focus of their report was the large-scale industrial poultry (predominantly chicken) production that is destroying wildlife. Approximately, 1.1 billion chickens are produced for meat consumption annually in the UK. In 2020 the FAO estimated global meat production at 135 million metric tons. The world’s favourite meat is devastating for the planet and the welfare of animals. The price of poultry plummeted in the mid-1950s, in a decade when it went from the most expensive meat to the cheapest. It is common for supermarkets to sell entire birds for £3.50, with the price halving since 2009. The pressure on farmers to produce poultry at the lowest price, squeezing margins, has severely affected the ability for farmers to tackle the climate and biodiversity issues caused by their production chain. We look at how our appetite for chicken flesh has created a wildlife death trap, and what strategies can be implemented to tackle poultry pollution.
Poultry & The Climate Crisis
It is a common misconception that chickens are not a major contributor to climate change, as their digestive systems do not produce methane. Nevertheless, greenhouse gases (GHGs) are still emitted to produce chicken feed, including from energy production and nitrous oxide from fertilizer application. Additionally, chicken manure releases nitrous oxide, a GHG far more hazardous than methane, which has nearly 300 times the global warming potentional of carbon dioxide. Poultry farming significantly affects levels of air pollution. Ammonia emissions and matter derived from manure, generally in confined spaces with poor ventilation, causes respiratory problems for humans and surrounding wildlife. Only 50% of emissions derived from poultry farming are generated before slaughter. The processing steps into a variety of productions, are energy and water intensive. It is estimated that the annual GHGs produced by poultry farming in the USA is 130 billion pounds per year, equivalent to 13 million cars.
Biodiversity Loss
Phosphorous is a crucial fertiliser required for plant growth. Without it, crop yields would be lower, restricting growth of roots and shoots. However, excess phosphorous can create serious environmental damages. Poultry farms across the world are fed soya, which has phosphorous applied to its roots. Once consumed, chickens convert the phosphate into manure, which is then spread onto land. Large scale industrial chicken facilities are processing millions of birds per year, with regulation and enforcement of manure poorly monitored.
A typical large-scale farm producing 600,000 chickens produces 3,300 tonnes of manure, which includes 72,000 pounds of nitrogen. This would need to be applied to 756 acres of lands. A vast amount. Many farms lack adequate land to dispose of manure, which subsequently runs into waterways and rivers. The American Boiler Belt in the USA and the Wye in the UK are prime examples of waterways that have been destroyed through water pollution. Manure mountains pile up around industrial factories, seeping into rivers. The River Wye, once renowned for its beauty, is blighted by algal blooms, destroying its biodiversity. When manure washes into waterways, the increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorous creates aquatic dead zones, where little life can exist. The little land left to manage extreme levels of manure created by industrialised chicken farming has led to long-term biodiversity loss.
Disease Threat
The filthy, crowded conditions endured by industrialised chicken farms, makes them breeding grounds for disease. Chickens are the most abused land animals on the planet. Around 50% of hens on egg farms live in a cage for their entire life, never witnessing sunlight. Over a 3-year period, more than 60 million chickens in the UK were rejected because of deformities and disease. On average, a 4% mortality rate exists on poultry farms. Drugs and antibiotics are regularly prescribed to keep chickens alive on farms. Approximately, 70% of all antibiotics are sold for farming practices. The United Nations have referred to drug-resistant superbugs as the biggest threat to modern medicine. Antibiotics strains of e-coli and other bacteria have been found for years in chicken sold in supermarkets. According to the FDA, avian flu has recently been found in 20% of US milk samples in the USA. As more drug-resistant bacteria continue to occur, chicken farms are strongly at risk at causing future pandemics.
Solutions
There is a problem with excess manure created by poultry farming. New technologies are currently in development to solve the problem. A system in northwest Herefordshire, in the UK, turns manure mountains into home insulation. Excess manure is provided to a factory in the Herefordshire vicinity, which is mixed with other farming by-products and turned into natural gas. Plans are afoot to build a plant that takes 100,000 tonnes of manure, which is then used to power around 6,000 homes, or more than 8% of Herefordshire’s housing. The same process is found at Whittern Farms, where a special incinerator has been built, processing 200 tonnes of manure, which in turn is burnt and used to warm the next generation of chickens. The incineration of manure provides phosphate-rich ash, which can be used as fertilisers by local farmers.
Summary
Poultry is playing an increasingly large role in both consumer diets and the climate conversation. The growing appetite for cheap poultry is having a devastating impact on the environment and welfare of the animals. As we grapple with excess water and manure pollution, large swathes of biodiversity are being lost. To address these issues, regulatory agencies, farmers, retailers, and consumers need to implement best practices. Agricultural runoff from poultry farming needs to be properly monitored and enforcement of regulation is essential for protecting and restoring the health of our environmental ecosystems. We need to help and support our farmers with the goal of reversing substantial wildlife loss.
