What's wrong with Costco's Chicken Plant?
What's the big deal? They're just chickens.
The big deal is that these chickens, all 350,000 slaughtered per day in the proposed plant near Fremont, would produce more than 840 million pounds of waste per year. Experts are concerned about how that will affect our water supplies, land, and our health. Chicken manure is very high in nitrogen and the nitrogen has been linked with the death of fish and other animals and blue baby syndrome in humans among other things.
The problem is that the proper research has not been conducted to make sure the waste can possibly be handled in a sustainable way. Des Moines has been dealing with a similar circumstance that began for them years ago and they're having a very difficult time cleaning the water because chemicals can't just be transformed into non-toxic substances. The ground can hold the chemicals in a healthy way but removing them from the water is a different story.
The health, economic, and environmental consequences are potentially a really big deal and need to be addressed before the plant is approved and installed. We the people need to know what decisions are being made that affect us and to speak out when we don't like what we see.
Please contact your City Council members and urge them to stop the development of this enormous plant until proper and independent scientific analyses can by conducted. Call 402-444-5555 or email hotline@cityofomaha.org.
If you'd like to know more and do more, please visit Nebraska Communities United website and read the letter from Graham Christiansen of GC Resolve and the letter by yours truly. Thank you in advance for getting engaged in any way in this issue!
