On February 21st, in Zagreb, Croatia, over 120 civil society organisations and civic initiatives will take to the streets. Why? To defend citizens’ rights against the development of a mega-complex of 20 interconnected poultry facilities, which threatens nature and local food sovereignty. From breeding and slaughtering to potentially processing 103 million chickens per year, this massive project planned in the Sisak-Moslavina County is a disaster in the making.
Two Ukrainian investors, Premium Chicken Company (PCC) and MHP group, are requesting separate permits for what would be a series of interconnected projects. In one of the investors’ words: a “vertically integrated chicken meat production and processing system”. Why? To actually avoid a cumulative assessment of the impacts on the environment, human health, infrastructure and the local economy.
According to available data, the plan includes:
- a mega-slaughterhouse with a biogas plant in Sisak.
- a chicken hatchery with a capacity of 120,000,000 chickens per year.
- In total 13 poultry facilities capable of producing 103 million chickens per year (four times Croatia’s total current production).
- 3 slaughterhouses with a total capacity of 270 million chicken per year and animal feed factories.
- 2 animal food factories for a total capacity of 500 000 tons per year.
Those projects will come at the expense of citizens living in this area. Numerous examples from other countries where this industrial agriculture business model has expanded the industry show devastating impacts for the environment and the health of nearby communities: water and air pollution, toxic smells, huge amounts of slurry.
The unprecedented level of support from the Croatian civil sector – and beyond the country’s borders – shows that this is not slimply a local problem, but an issue of national importance.
Citizens are increasingly aware of and recognizing the destructiveness of this intensive, industrial type of food production.
“An incredible seven million chickens are planned to be slaughtered per month, previously kept in the worst conditions of intensive farming. The megalomaniacal plants would produce huge amounts of wastewater, toxic gas emissions and waste, with intense heavy truck traffic, all in the vicinity of settlements, schools, rivers and protected areas. Every year the situation would get worse until an ecological cataclysm occurs. If we do not stop this now, we will open the door to dirty projects brought by foreign investors for profits, at the cost of a healthy and sustainable future for us,”
– says the animal rights organisation Prijatelji Zivotinja.
Despite the local population efforts to point out irregularities protests, signed petitions and participating in public discussions, the investors are still getting away using dirty tricks and administrative manipulations to avoid legal compliance.. While authorities refuse to aknowledge the scale of the issue and act responsibly.
That is why, on February 21st, at the initiative of Green Action (Friends of the Earth Croatia), Prijatelji Zivotinja and the civic initiatives “People of Sisak do not want to be Smetlišćani” and “People of Sunj do not want to be swindled”, more than 120 civil society organisations will take to the streets to protest this “chicken eco-bomb”. They urge national authorities and the government to halt the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIAs) that still need to happen and to review the EIA decisions which currently claim that no environmental impact will occur due to the planned projects.
