Zootecnica International - World Poultry Journal

The poultry industry, just one small part of our factory farm nation, has a massive waste problem. Today, national consumer group Food & Water Watch criticized the plans of poultry processing giant Perdue Agribusiness and Fibrowatt LLC to build a power plant on Maryland's Eastern Shore that generates electricity from chicken manure.

 "Perdue and Fibrowatt are billing poultry litter incineration as a way to solve the problem of managing excessive amounts of animal waste, but it's no solution at all," said Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter. "Taxpayers are about to subsidize an industry that has choked the Bay with its wastes and now literally will choke our communities' air."

Food & Water Watch's Poultry Incineration: An Unsustainable Solution, a detailed fact sheet, describes the many problems that make this project a bad decision for lawmakers to support, and reveals that poultry litter incineration might produce as much or more toxic air emissions than coal plants.

On the Eastern Shore, factory farms produce an estimated 300,384 tons of poultry litter in excess of what the land can absorb, which, after being spread across fields, usually ends up polluting the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways. But incinerating this waste is not a sustainable solution for a problem created by concentrating too many animals in one place, says Food & Water Watch. Incineration would introduce harmful air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, dioxin and nitrogen oxides that could cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancer.

Perdue's and Fibrowatt's poultry incineration project, like others of its kind being proposed in North Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Connecticut and Virginia, could potentially receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in government subsidies and tax credits. But projects like this don't solve the problem of excessive amounts of animal waste from factory farms. In fact, it serves as an example of how Maryland's government would rather allow the industry to continue unsustainable farming practices and place the burden on its citizens to solve the industry's waste woes.

"It's not surprising that Governor O'Malley supports waste incineration, given his cozy relationship with the industry," said Hauter. The group recently released 70 emails between the Governor and Herb Frerichs, General Counsel for Perdue, on a variety of issues, including poultry litter incineration.

Four processing companies rule the poultry sector due to heavy consolidation. Each year, Maryland's broiler chicken industry produces 700 million pounds of poultry litter. On the Eastern Shore, factory farms produce 300,384 tons of excess poultry litter, which, after being spread across fields, usually ends up polluting the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.

"Instead of poultry waste incineration that threatens the health of communities across the state, Maryland would be better off working to transition agriculture away from factory chicken farms and towards more diverse, sustainable farming," said Hauter. "Maryland lawmakers should focus on reining in the unchecked power of big chicken companies."

Read here the full report

Source: NorthcentralPA.com

For the first time in the Sri Lankan Agriculture history maize is being exported in large volumes to Canada, Taiwan and Gulf countries. Managing Director, Wayamba Traders Company, Shahul Hameed Sadikeen told Daily News Business that that they would be exporting 50, 000 metric tonnes mainly to be used as raw material to manufacture poultry feed.

He said that with peace and more lands being made available for agriculture, Sri Lanka achieved self sufficiency in maize this year. "The country's demands is 180,000 mt tonnes per year and during harvesting of the first season the yield is 200, 000 mt tonnes," he said. He added that they are now looking at manufacturing poultry food in Sri Lanka for exporting to these countries.

Wayamba Traders has a forward sales buying agreement with 2,220 farmers in the Anuradhapura district giving them a guaranteed price of Rs. 35 per kilo. Since the maize plant takes only around three and a half months to mature, farmers earn a profit of around Rs 150,000 growing two and a half acres of maize.

"Subsequently the maize is dehusked by another group who have been provided with machines," he said. This project has been facilitated by the Central Bank.

Wayamba Traders was established in 1993 as a sole trader proprietorship specializing in imports, exports and local merchandise of ago-commodities such as sesame seeds, black pepper, desiccated coconut, nutmeg, cinnamon, garcinia, soya beans, maize and other agricultural products.

He said that he has also influenced farmers to grow sesame also to export to these countries mainly to produce edible oil. "While winning several achievement awards Wayamba Traders is also a large supplier of commodities to the U.N. initiated child health programme in Sri Lanka." Sadikeen said that one of the prime objectives of his company is to help the country to narrow its trade deficit by helping to export more agricultural products.

"Our next project would be to export locally developed infant food,Thriposha and we are looking at exporting this from the Hambantota harbour since it's a free port" he disclosed. Sri Lanka from last year became self sufficient in rice and will be exporting 50,000 mt tonnes to many countries from this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today launched a new web-based label approval system that will streamline the agency's review process for meat, poultry, and egg product labels. The Label Submission Approval System (LSAS) will make it possible for food manufacturers to submit label applications electronically, will flag application submission errors that could delay the approval process, and will allow users to track the progress of their submission.

"This new system will expedite and simplify the review process for meat, poultry and egg product labels," Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Elisabeth Hagen said. "Reducing the review times for labels will enhance the agency's ability to ensure that accurate information is applied to product labels and reaches consumers quickly."

FSIS reviews labels on the products it regulates to ensure they are truthful and not misleading. LSAS will reduce the time and costs incurred by both the industry and the agency. Until the launch of LSAS, companies mailed or hand delivered paper applications to FSIS, and FSIS reviewed and corrected them before returning them in hard copy. The agency receives 150 to 200 label submissions daily, and it can take more than three weeks for a label to be reviewed. The web-based system will make approved or corrected labels immediately available to companies, saving time and mailing costs. The system also will allow companies to store labels and make changes electronically, removing the need to print and re-submit modified labels for review to FSIS each time a change is made.

Label submissions are reviewed on a first come, first served basis, and the agency will continue to review labels in the same manner using LSAS. If a company chooses to use LSAS to submit a label for approval, during the submission process, the system will notify the company if an application is incomplete through an error message. The system assigns each label a tracking number so the progress of its review can be tracked online. The system also includes an option to first see if the label qualifies for a generic approval before proceeding with a submission (generic approval means the label does not have to be submitted to FSIS for review prior to use).

More information about LSAS, including instructions on accessing the system using Level 2 USDA e-authentication, a user's guide, agency contact information, and frequently asked questions is available on FSIS' website.

FSIS strongly encourages companies to consult the LSAS User's Guide before attempting to submit their first label(s) through the new system. Webinars about LSAS will be scheduled and announced in coming weeks.

The LSAS is another result of an on-going USDA review of existing program rules to determine whether any should be modified, streamlined, clarified, or repealed to improve access to USDA programs. With the intent to minimize burdens on individuals, businesses and communities attempting to access programs, the review was directed by President Obama in Executive Order 13563, which he signed January 18, 2011.

In the past two years, FSIS has announced several measures to safeguard the food supply, prevent foodborne illness, and improve consumers' knowledge about the food they eat. These initiatives support the three core principles developed by the President's Food Safety Working Group: prioritizing prevention; strengthening surveillance and enforcement; and improving response and recovery. Some of these actions include:

• Zero tolerance policy for six Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) serogroups. Raw ground beef, its components, and tenderized steaks found to contain E. coli O26, O103, O45, O111, O121 or O145 will be prohibited from sale to consumers. USDA will launch a testing program to detect these dangerous pathogens and prevent them from reaching consumers.
• Test and hold policy that will significantly reduce consumer exposure to unsafe meat products, should the policy become final, because products cannot be released into commerce until Agency test results for dangerous contaminants are known.
• Labeling requirements that provide better information to consumers about their food by requiring nutrition information for single-ingredient raw meat and poultry products and ground or chopped products.
• Public Health Information System, a modernized, comprehensive database about public health trends and food safety violations at the nearly 6,100 plants FSIS regulates.

Source: USDA FSIS

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Tuesday signed a bill banning arsenic in poultry feed, making his state the first to have a law against the practice on the books.

The new law, which takes effect Jan 1, prohibits the use, sale, or distribution of commercial feed containing arsenic and specifically mentions two Pfizer drugs that contain arsenic: Roxarsone, which the company voluntarily withdrew from the market last year, and Histostat, which is still on the market.

The move follows a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study released last summer that found increased levels of inorganic arsenic in the livers of chickens treated with the Roxarsone. The new data raised concerns of a "very low but completely avoidable exposure to a carcinogen," said Michael Taylor, FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Foods, when FDA announced the company was withdrawing the drug in response to the study's findings.

Arsenic is a known human carcinogen and has been linked to a variety of health concerns, including interfering in fetal development, but FDA said the levels found in their poultry study are low enough that consumers are not at risk eating poultry while Roxarsone is phased out of use in the United States.

It is not known how widely the drug might be stockpiled and still used today. When Pfizer announced the withdrawal, FDA said it did not have data on usage in poultry production.

Aside from food safety concerns, which have been raised for many years, there is also overwhelming evidence that feeding arsenicals to poultry has had a harmful impact on the environment.

Maryland knows the impacts first hand. According to Food and Water Watch, the state's poultry producers spread 22,000 pounds of arsenic -- which is found in the fecal waste -- to farmland "which ultimately gets washed into waterways like the Chesapeake Bay."

A recent study by researchers at the University of Maryland found that poultry fed Roxarsone produced poultry litter -- the waste from production, which includes feces, feathers and bedding -- that contains 2.9 to 77 times the arsenic than poultry not fed Roxarsone. Further, the team found that the arsenic in the litter broke down into inorganic, the kind known to be harmful to human health, and it accumulates in soil.

Source: Food Safety News