Turnerville, Ga.-Plans are still waiting on local approvals for a processing plant to turn chicken litter into a pelletized fertilizer to be used by farmers in the south Georgia area on row crops, according to developers. The prime mover, Eddie Addison, told Green Markets he hopes to be in operation by late spring, producing nearly 30 truckloads daily and as much as 750,000 tons per year from litter supplied by several area poultry producers. “It’s all a very simple closed system that produces no odors while generating a 2-2-2 fertilizer,” Addison explained. He said a large cattle feeder would be used to combine the litter with waste fats from the poultry processing. Right now, he noted, this byproduct is an environmental problem because it is being disposed of by injecting it into the ground. He said EPA, USDA, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources have endorsed the process, and the Habersham County planning board agrees that his project is viable. But the officials put their final decision on hold, even though the building and planning department recommended approval of a conditional use permit requiring vegetative and “sight and sound” buffers. There are objections from approximately 10 residents, some of whom Addison said don’t even live close to the proposed site. Addison has the support of Fieldale Farms Corp., which has provided a site where the plant would be built to house the mixing facilities, and whose executive vice president, Joe Hatfield, is a partner in the proposed business and also on the state natural resources board of directors. If the business has an operation miscue, “if we stub our toe, we’ll be front-page news in Atlanta,” Hatfield promised.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain