Chicken farmers gearing up to protest homeland security rules

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Are chicken houses the next battleground in the war on terror?

Poultry growers are squawking mad over proposed regulations from the Department of Homeland Security that anybody with 7,500 pounds or more of propane gas register with the agency. The threshold is low enough that poultry farmers who use propane to heat chicken houses in the winter may be affected.

``It would affect almost all of us,'' said Jenny Rhodes, who has 80,000 roasters in Centreville. She criticized the proposal to fill out ``hellacious forms'' and register farmers' propane use.

``I could think of a lot easier, better targets'' for terrorists than chicken farms, groused Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a Washington-based industry group. The U.S. Poultry Egg Association, and the National Turkey Federation, have also joined a protest of the proposed regulations that name propane a ``chemical of interest.''

The proposal would require many farmers to register with the agency and fill out a risk assessment about their propane tanks. By industry counts, up to 40,000 farms could be affected.

Maryland's two senators, Democrats Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, along with Democratic Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff requesting the rule not be adopted. The three senators said the propane registry for poultry producers may be a waste of money.

``Given the serious threats that are currently facing our country and the limited resources of the Department of Homeland Security, please explain why this initiative is a good use of federal dollars,'' the senators wrote earlier this month.

Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia wrote a letter with similar concerns in July, said spokeswoman Joan Kirchner.

``While homeland security issues are paramount, it would have an adverse affect on the poultry industry in our state,'' she said of the propane regulation.

Carper, a member of the Homeland Security committee, called the inclusion of poultry farms a likely oversight.

``We tried to make sure terrorists wouldn't target chemical plants and turn them into a weapon. The folks in the Department of Homeland Security have taken that to an extreme,'' Carper said.

The precaution is silly given the rural nature of poultry farms, he said.

``In Delaware, we have 300 chickens for every person who lives here,'' he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Russ Knocke, said the farmers would only need to spend ``a couple hours'' online to comply and that the agency is right to compile data on dangerous chemicals used, even in rural areas.

The registry, he said, would ``contribute to a more universal picture of the types of hazardous chemicals out there.''

Bill Satterfield, who runs the Delaware-based Delmarva Poultry Industry trade group, said people are not at risk from propane tanks on chicken farms.

``What terrorist would focus on propane tanks on a chicken farm?'' Satterfield asked.

``It's ridiculous. Poultry farms are not near population centers. An exploding propane tank would do little harm to the chicken houses, much less any other buildings on the farm, much less anybody else.''

Meat companies oppose the idea, too.

``We think it's unnecessary,'' said Julie DeYoung, a spokeswoman for Salisbury-based Perdue Farms Inc., the nation's third-largest poultry producer. Like other large meat companies, Perdue contracts with chicken farmers and won't be directly affected, but Perdue opposes the propane rule on behalf of the chicken farmers, DeYoung said.

``It really would be a burden on them to comply with, and it's something that's not that big a threat to homeland security,'' DeYoung said.

Rhodes, the chicken farmer, said even farmers who wanted to comply would waste hours because it would take longer than promised to fill out the forms using dial-up Internet connections common in rural areas.

``It would be almost impossible'' to keep up with the registration requirements, she said.

Carper said that when the department regulations take effect, which could be later this month, the agency will raise the propane threshold to exempt poultry farms.

``It's just not a threat,'' he said.


(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)