Perdue responds to petition

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

SALISBURY, Md. — Perdue Farms has responded, sharply in one instance, to recent challenges to its wide-spread poultry integration business.
The firm’s frustration with activists of the environmental movement were apparent as it remarked upon a protest by a group calling itself Environment Maryland.
The group had presented a petition to Gov. Martin O’Malley which it claimed has been signed by what it characterized as  “55 farmers” urging the governor to require large agribusinesses such as Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods “to be more responsible for their animals’ manure.”
Steve Schwalb, Perdue’s vice president for environmental sustainability, issued this statement:
“Perdue is addressing the environmental challenges facing the Bay.
“We’ve partnered with EPA through the historic Clean Waters Environmental Initiative to work with the farm families who grow our chickens to help ensure environmental compliance of their poultry operations.
“More than 230 of the largest farms growing for us are already enrolled in this program, and we’ll have 100 percent of our independent producers participating by the end of next year.
“For those growers who need an alternative use for their poultry litter, we offer Perdue AgriRecycle, the industry’s first large-scale litter recycling operation. Through Perdue AgriRecycle, we’ve managed more than 100 million pounds of nutrients, with more than half of that going to uses outside the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“We believe that kind of progress happens through cooperation, and we’ll continue to work with the agricultural community, state and federal agencies and willing environmental groups to continue that progress.”
In a related development, a federal judge in Baltimore recently refused to dismiss a runoff suit against Perdue Farms and Hudson Farm of Berlin, an Eastern Shore chicken grower for Perdue.
The suit was filed by the Waterkeepers Alliance, and  the Assateague Coastkeeper. Perdue and Hudson countered that the suit contained allegations not included in their original notice of intent to sue.
Perdue also claimed it couldn’t be sued because the farm held the operating permit.
The suit alleged Perdue and the Hudson Farm had allowed runoff from manure to pollute a nearby waterway.
Judge William M. Nickerson, while refusing to dismiss the suit, ruled that the Assateague Coastkeeper and the head of the group, Kathy Phillips, could not be permitted to continue as plaintiffs because they had improperly filed the notice to sue.
Michael Schatzow, attorney for Perdue Farms,  said that the decision to proceed was “a very narrow, preliminary ruling on a routine procedural motion.”
Schatzow said the ruling “has nothing to do with the merits of the case. We are looking forward to prevailing once the case itself is argued in the courtroom.”