My local river's dying... because of chicken shit!
I live very close to the River Wye, which runs 150 miles in total from the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales to the Severn Estuary, making it Britain's fourth largest river.
It also used to be one of the finest, it meanders through the beautiful countryside of the Welsh borders and much of its length it travels through areas of outstanding natural beauty.
However, thanks to chicken shit it has recently been downgraded by Natural England to 'unfavourable-declining' status.
The main reason for this is the large algal blooms you can see at times which turn the water in a pea-soup, which de-oxygenate the water and crowd out all other lifeforms.
Back in the 1960s 50K trout used to run the Wye, now it's just 2-3000 a year.
It's industrial chicken farming!
70% of the pollution in the Wye is because of chicken manure. Roughly 25% of the 18 million chickens slaughtered for meat are reared on the banks of the Wye.
One local plant produces 1.6 million chickens a week. (!!!)
These produce a lot of shit high in nitrogen which is either left on the chicken farms or sold locally as manure.
The problem is all it takes is heavy rain fall and much of this is washed into the river, and it rains A LOT around here!
Chicken manure is full of nitrogen and phosphorous and the phosphate levels in the Why are five to ten times their legal limit.
The problem....
There is a loophole in the law which allows chicken farmers to break rules on applying polluting fertiliser when they think it's 'reasonable' to do so.
And chicken farmer's margins are dragged down by the supermarkets they sell to.
And ultimately this problem is down to consumer demand for cheap chicken, all the farmers are doing is meeting that demand.
A solution...?
It seems quite simple... we just need to keep on top of that chicken shit... move the birds further away from the river and collect their manure more frequently, and make sure it gets spread miles away from the river's catchment area...
Although this would require some joined up thinking, as it stands it's just a matter of leaving the farmers free to exploit that loophole which is killing one of our rivers.
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Strange, rivers generally die lack of precipitation and I think this can't happen in UK.
A nasty problem no doubt, though if I was close enough I would be going to that river to grab a lot of that water to use as fertilizer
Well I guess that is an option!
the society needs of having everything cheaper and cheaper is killing us slowly
And another (longer term) solution is to stop supporting the violence supporting consumption of eating (especially mass produced) chickens!
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Well that cld work too... it is aweful battery meat farming.
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Animal farming has many consequences and getting rid of all the shit is an issue. Nature is given a lower priority to the people getting their processed nuggets and KFC. Eating less meat is another way to deal with it.
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These natural rivers are the beauty of that areas but people are not caring for this beauty and we will lost one day. We ought to be careful to deliver this beauty to the next generation and I think, it is our duty.
This is terrible to hear and read to. Sadly in many countries out there healthy food seems more like a luxurious thing over the affordable prices that are in most of the cases set on toxic food. Yet a thing that should be the opposite!
From my knowledge in the States things are a bit more different having junk food more expensive than healthy food which should happen everywhere honestly, for the sake of encouraging people to take care more of their health and future.
Give me locally produced and organic any day!
You'll be able to grow some excellent lettuce in the soil once the water goes down. Manure is one of the best natural fertilizers. Millions of buffalo used to roam the prairies, shitting all over the place, and all that did was make the grass grow better. They'd all stop at rivers or ponds for extended periods of time, drink and shit everywhere. That behavior can still be observed in nature.
Majority of the wildlife in the world is gone compared to thousands of years ago. Take the rest of the animals away and you'll have to depend on chemical fertilizers. Destroys nature's balance.
I think it'd more about the sheer concentration around here - these chickens don't roam!
I see your point. But if everyone had a few in their yard, you'd still end up with the same amount of shit. Some will end up in the lawn but their coop still gets messy. You'd have to dispose of it somehow. So the most beneficial method would be a special shit facility because you lose the full benefits of all that shit if people simply threw it in the trash. And you certainly can't have a shit pile in your back yard fermenting, waiting to be turned into delicious garden salad. Then one day the shit factory spills over because John was hung over and pushed the wrong button.
Moral the story: Instead of getting rid of the chickens, you fire John because he's a drunk asshole. Close to rivers probably because chickens need water. But it's 2024 and we should be able to hold our shit better by now, because having that much run off into the water supply is like flushing good shit down the toilet.
Speaking of which. Have you noticed how many humans do that every day?
Go to the ocean and look at the rocks. What are they covered in? lol
Shit. Bird shit.
Other moral of the story: The world is full of shit. Imagine how much shit 60k trout produce. And there's a really good reason why plants grow so well next to rivers and ponds. It's not just the water. Nutrients as well. Crystal clear pure running fresh surface water only exists at high elevations or cold climates. Not much life in those regions.
Anyway. Pardon my edits. Got me thinking is all. Thinking about shit.
Precisely it - keep those chickens further away!
lol don't get me thinking about shit again.
Was thinking about logistics. Requires far more energy (things like fuel) to cart around a million smaller piles of shit and take it to the shit factory. And you have to put the feed center right beside it so people take feed with them on their way home. If it's on the other side of town, that's even more fuel burned.
And even if the chickens are spread out, still going to be millions processed in one day. All the energy and tools that go into that. But now much of what the people don't eat goes into the trash. Those feathers are used a million different ways. All natural and better than their petrochemical alternatives.
lol I could keep going dude...
Interesting to see how food demand/consumption plays out in the environment. It's not great for health either.
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Just like that, such beautiful places that are there are disappearing now due to pollution and dirt, people do not protect them at all and in the coming time people will have a lot of problems because in the same way. Because of things like trees, we can breathe in peace.