MeatingPod
MeatingPod is the podcast of Meatingplace, the premier magazine and news source for the meat and poultry processing industry. Each week, our award-winning editorial teams put you in the room as we interview industry thought leaders in business, plant operations, marketing, science and technology on the topics that matter to our community. Tune in on Mondays and get the inside track on the people and processes that power the protein supply.
MeatingPod
Ep. 232: Out with the Birdbath Water
Every pound a broiler chick puts on up to market distribution uses a gallon of water. Multiply that by the nearly 10 billion birds produced in the U.S. each year — predominantly in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states — and that’s a small lake’s worth of H2O.
Much of that is the byproduct of processing, and managing that nutrient- and solids-dense water sustainably and economically is a priority for the entire poultry supply chain.
Auburn University’s Brendan Higgins has been studying the options for nearly a decade, and has found that poultry processing water byproducts can be used boost crops — even lettuce, which is especially vulnerable to contamination. Mindful of the fact that every site is unique, he and his team have vetted several options for processors to consider, primarily using technology that’s familiar to the industry and may already be at-hand.
Higgins explains his research and its applications to the industry in this episode of MeatingPod.
Listeners who are interesting in learning more should check out these papers written by Dr. Higgins and his team on the topic they have dubbed "PoultryPonics":
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852425001932
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479725005353