Doctor group pushes poultry industry to shift to lab-grown meat
SALISBURY, Md. – A pair of controversial billboards in Salisbury are calling on the poultry industry on the Eastern Shore to pivot to lab-grown meat. Those responsible for the ads say they’re in an effort to cut down on environmental and health risks associated with the industry.
The billboards, sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are arguing a shift to lab-grown meat will decrease dissolved solids in the Chesapeake Bay and food born illnesses by cutting out manure, which they say is the source of diseases like E. coli.
“We want to eliminate the manure from the process because that’s what’s leading to pollution, this contamination, the phosphorus and the nitrogen causing dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, so we can eliminate that pollution by switching to lab-grown meats,” said Dr. Anna Herby of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Dr. Anna Herny says their group is calling Perdue to invest 50 percent of its funding to research this alternative, as well as calling on Salisbury Randy Taylor to designate February as Lab Grown Meat Month.
Dr. Herby says her group does not have any planned push for legislation to create tax incentives or other pathways to lower costs for Lab-Grown Meat, citing the growth of plant-based meat alternatives.
However, the Delmarva Chicken Association says shifting away from traditional poultry manufacturing would not just eliminate a key part of the shore’s history, but also take away jobs from the number one industry on the Eastern Shore.
“The 1,300 family farmers who raised chicken in Delmarva have invested in alternative energy like solar panels. They’ve constantly added planted buffers on their farms to capture dust, odor, and nutrients, and they produce more chicken on less land using fewer fossil fuels than ever before,” said DCA Spokesman James Fisher.
Fisher tells 47 ABC WMDT say the scale of poultry production cannot be replicated with the lab-grown alternatives. He adds that the industry is investing in technology, like anaerobic digestion to reduce the impact of chicken manure.
“New technologies, like anaerobic digestion, take that progress even further than we already have. And, all this time the chicken community employs more than 18,300 people in Delmarva,” Fisher said.
Fisher added that there is no realistic alternative today to that system. “Chicken is America’s most popular protein by far. So, to try to imagine that you can just snap your fingers and get rid of the chicken farm, the economy is not realistic and not sensible,” he said.
