As the Maryland legislative session heads into its final weeks, prospects for passage are extremely slim for the Poultry Litter Management Act. The House and Senate versions of the bill have yet to gain traction in either the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee and the House Environment and Transportation Committee. The bills would require chicken processing companies to pay the cost of properly disposing of excess poultry litter generated on contract farms.
The Farmers’ Rights Act designed to give growers more leverage in their contracts with poultry processing companies also failed to make it out of its House and Senate Committees. That bill included a requirement of 90 days’ written notice of a contract cancellation, whistleblower protection, ending the current tournament system, and barring companies from retaliating against growers for exercising their new found rights in the bill. No Maryland farmers testified in Annapolis in favor of the Farmer’s Rights Act.
