Chicken waste reveals a little too much for comfort Just imagine how many chickens it takes to produce 48 billion pounds of chicken meat. That's the total produced by the U.S. chicken industry in 2006. Now, just imagine what all those chickens leave behind. Oklahoma state officials estimate that more than 345,000 tons of poultry waste are produced yearly in and around the Illinois River watershed in the eastern part of the state where chicken farming accounts for about two percent of the U.S. poultry market. The state's Attorney General recently asked a federal judge to make several large chicken producers halt the pollution caused by an unchecked tide of chicken waste. For many years, farmers in this area (including conglomerates like Tyson and Cargill) have used chicken waste as inexpensive fertilizer. The result: A once pristine watershed has become a mess of dark sludge that reeks of ammonia. And worse, the state notes that this waste contains antibiotics, growth hormones, bacteria, and heavy metals. That glimpse of chicken waste also gives us a sobering glimpse of what we're actually ingesting when we eat factory-farmed meats. Source:
"Okla. Fight Over Poultry Waste Escalates" Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press, 3/3/08, ap.org | 
