Just inland from the shore, the scope of the farms overwhelms the senses. The 500-foot-long chicken houses stretch from the roadways like airplane hangars.
Inside each house, 20,000 to 35,000 chickens cramp the floors farther than the eye can see. Feed and water are delivered in automated pipes that stretch the length of the houses.
Corn and soy fields separate the houses from the roads, and three quarters of the state’s crop go toward feeding the birds.
Gigantic fans suction ammonia from the birds’ waste, filling the air for miles around.
…
As the phosphorous and nitrogen levels in the bay have grown, so have the algae that deplete oxygen needed by other aquatic life.
In the past two decades, working oystermen on the bay have dropped to less than 500, from 6,000. The crab population has fallen by 70 percent.
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State officials have started to realize that there are consequences to being able to sell skinless, boneless chicken breast for just over $2 per pound when virtually no other protein source with so little fat is that cheap, Mr. Winegrad said.
Really. Really? Come on. The last time I bought a pound of tofu it cost $2 or less. What about vital wheat gluten? That’s cheap to make. These must be the “virtual” protein sources he’s referring to. Or maybe, just maybe, he wants to draw out this sob story of an economically oppressed farmer who’s just trying to make a couple bucks and shovel himself out from underneath a pile of chicken shit.
