Poultry

Man gets probation for melee on airliner A 35-year-old Arizona man was sentenced yesterday to three years' probation for punching two America West crew members aboard a flight from Phoenix to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in March, according to federal prosecutors. Bryan Leon Spann also was ordered to undergo a substance-abuse evaluation, complete an anger-management program, write a letter to the two flight attendants and donate $1,500 to the Air Charity Network, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said.

A glimpse at the next 10 years in U.S. agriculture: Farmland prices will continue to rise, corn will cover more acreage and farmers will earn more profit. These are some of the predictions for the next decade in "Projections to 2016," a USDA report released last week at the department's annual outlook conference, held in Arlington, Va. For the nation as a whole, the average price of corn jumped 50 percent last year from $2 a bushel to $3, spurred by the production of ethanol as an alternative fuel for automobiles.

If Maryland moves forward with a chicken manure-burning electric power plant, a British company could revive its plans to build the facility on the Eastern Shore. Fibrowatt Ltd. first proposed a plant that would produce electricity from poultry manure nearly 10 years ago, after runoff from grain fields fertilized with chicken manure was blamed for toxic outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida. The microorganism caused fish kills and forced three Maryland rivers to be closed to recreational use. Fibrowatt, which was operating two poultry manure-burning plants in England in 1997 and had a third under construction, offered to build a plant here that would burn about 400,000 tons of chicken manure a year and produce more than enough electricity to supply a city the size of Salisbury.

The often-delicate subject of the impact farmland runoff has on the Chesapeake Bay will be front and center at a summit this week on the Eastern Shore. The Waterkeeper Alliance, the sponsor of the event, points to agricultural runoff, most of which comes from poultry litter from Eastern Shore operations, as the primary source of pollution in the bay. Organizers say the event is aimed at highlighting efforts by the poultry industry to curb nutrient runoff, alternate uses for poultry litter, and legal, legislative and regulatory methods for reducing the amount of nutrients escaping from poultry litter into bay tributaries.

ENTERPRISE, Ala. - In this rural town with the can-do name, the ugliness began with a showdown. In late 1995, 39 chicken farmers decided to say no to ConAgra, the nation's fifth largest poultry processor.The farmers said the company's new contract was unfair and a ticket to the poorhouse. Local bankers agreed. Emboldened by unity and the security of their farms - which they could sell if the going got rough - the farmers refused to sign.They might as well have challenged a tank squadron with pitchforks.

AS HE TRUDGED through the mud of poultry grower Arthur Holley's Parsonsburg farm last week, Rep. Wayne T. Gil-chrest symbolically crossed into new territory. He and several other members of Congress had journeyed from Washington to take a closer look at something that until recently had gone largely unnoticed -- the demotion of the chicken farmer from ruler of his roost to land-owning serf.In doing so, Gilchrest, a Republican who represents the Eastern Shore, and the others joined a small but growing movement that hopes to change the relationship between the roughly 30,000 U.S. chicken growers and the large corporations that process and market poultry.

One thing is sure: Hank Thornes is high on Perdue. Fresh from one of the best years he's had, the 66-year-old Stockton farmer sounds like he did a decade ago, when he and his wife, Faye, were named the Salisbury company's top growers on the Delmarva Peninsula. That's when a smiling Hank Thornes appeared in ads in such publications as the Salisbury Daily Times, under the headline: "This Is Where the Real Good Money Is."Eleven years later, the Thorneses believe it still is -- even though the newest of their five chicken houses is 20 years old. They are happy with their company, happy with chickens.

Any good repertoire of main-dish recipes ought to include a variety of quick, delicious ideas for baked chicken breasts.The recipe below is ready for the oven in minutes; there's no marinating, no prebrowning. The chicken bakes unattended for around half an hour, freeing the cook to put together the rest of the meal; there's no basting, no turning. The key to keeping the tender breast meat flavorful and succulent as it bakes is a simple cooking sauce.Tips:* To reduce the risk of food-borne illness from raw poultry products, do not let juices from the poultry or the packaging in which it was sold touch other foods or work surfaces.

Every time a rail car filled with grain rolls into Perdue Farms' large poultry feed mill in Hurlock on the Eastern Shore, Maryland taxpayers are picking up part of the tab.The reason is the state's extensive support for the Maryland & Delaware Railroad Co. (M&D), which provides rail service to Eastern Shore businesses, many of which are tied in one way or another to the region's vast poultry industry.In a little-known but sizable subsidy, the state has poured millions of dollars into the freight rail operation over the past 21 years.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has asked that state officials enforce environmental laws against Tyson Foods Inc. after the environmental group's recent discoveries that the nation's largest poultry producer has been dumping thousands of gallons of chicken waste daily on an Eastern Shore field.In a letter sent to Maryland Department of Environment officials Friday, the foundation urged MDE to take immediate action against the poultry giant for disposing of chicken remains on its 105-acre farm field near Berlin.

Maryland's move to better control polluted runoff from its largest poultry farms has been put on hold, officials said yesterday, because environmentalists and an Eastern Shore farmer have challenged the state's requirements. The Waterkeeper Alliance, a New York-based environmental group with state branches, and Blair Ranneberger, a Wicomico County chicken farmer, filed separate requests to review the requirements as they were about to take effect Wednesday, according to Robert Summers, deputy secretary for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The deadly H5N1 virus, bird flu, has resurfaced in poultry in Hong Kong for the first time in six years, reinforcing warnings that the threat of a human pandemic still exists. During December, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland China also experienced new outbreaks. In that same period, four new human cases in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia were reported to the World Health Organization. A 16-year-old girl in Egypt and a 2-year-old girl in Indonesia have died. The new cases come at a time when the number of confirmed human deaths from H5N1 bird flu have fallen for two years in a row and fewer countries are reporting outbreaks among poultry.

The Environmental Protection Agency's end-of-year decision to exempt farmers from reporting the amount of ammonia emitted from animal waste doesn't pass the smell test. While this would benefit those in Maryland's poultry industry, which is based on the Eastern Shore and raised 295 million chickens last year, the ruling isn't welcome news for their neighbors, environmentalists and others citizens. The EPA's rule change exempts animal farm operations from having to report ammonia and other emissions under "right to know" requirements of federal emergency response laws.

In its final days, the Bush administration is poised to exempt poultry farms from reporting how much ammonia and other noxious pollutants they are releasing into the air from the millions of tons of manure their flocks generate. The Environmental Protection Agency has asked the federal Office of Management and Budget to give final approval to a rule that would exclude poultry farms from environmental reporting required of other industries. The budget office reviews all proposed federal regulations to see that their benefits justify their costs.

For hundreds of Eastern Shore farmers and thousands of poultry plant workers there, ethanol is a dirty word these days. An energy bill passed by Congress last year requires that 9 billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gasoline in the 12 months beginning Sept. 1. It's part of an effort to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and lower energy prices. But there's a problem: Much of the ethanol is being produced from corn that would have been used to feed chickens. Demand from ethanol producers is pushing the price of corn so high that it's squeezing the profits and production of Maryland poultry producers and the farmers who raise chickens for them.

It would be a mistake to think of farmers as a threat to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Generally, farming is far less harmful to water quality than most land uses. So regulating farming, whenever possible, requires a cooperative and open-minded approach by government. The question is: Has the O'Malley administration struck the proper balance with its recent decision to scale back proposed rules governing poultry farms? The evidence suggests strongly that it has not. At issue is what to do about the hundreds of millions of pounds of poultry litter produced each year by Maryland farmers.

LONDON - In what would be a major boost for the U.S. poultry industry, the European Union appears close to lifting its 11-year-old ban on imports of American poultry. Some trade experts say an announcement could come as early as today after a meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council in Brussels, Belgium. Others say it's more likely an announcement will come next month at a formal U.S.-EU summit in Slovenia. The expected decision would open up a market worth at least $200 million, and perhaps much more, to U.S. poultry farmers.

A federal judge in Baltimore ordered Tyson Foods yesterday to stop using a recent advertising campaign because he says it is misleading consumers into believing that the poultry giant is raising its chickens drug-free. The U.S. District Court ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed against the company by Salisbury-based Perdue Farms and Sanderson Farms of Mississippi. The competing poultry producers claim that they're losing millions of dollars to Tyson because its advertising falsely claims that the company's birds are not medicated.

Sunshine is an effective disinfectant, as we've pointed out in past disputes over public records, and that should certainly apply to the regulation of farm fertilizers and animal waste. Yet the Maryland Department of Agriculture is locked in a court fight with an environmental group over the agency's unwillingness to share the nutrient management plans Maryland farmers are required to file. That's wrong, and it's particularly disappointing that Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has so far chalked up an otherwise impressive record on matters of water quality and land use, has not intervened.

The Chesapeake Bay, where we learned to swim, fish and crab, is dying. And despite millions of taxpayer dollars spent on research and reporting, there has been little action to hold polluters accountable for poisoning our beloved bay. Drive around the country roads of the Delmarva Peninsula and you will find the leading source of the desecration of the bay and its estuarine tributaries: toxic animal waste piled outside chicken houses, sprayed over fields...