An activist group opposed to arsenic in chicken feed is spreading the word that this university’s poultry supply may include the potentially hazardous substance.
The Food & Water Watch — a nonprofit safety watchdog — has created a petition to be presented to the state General Assembly seeking a ban on the use of arsenic as a catalyst to speed chickens’ growth. Some of its members are warning students that chicken served on this campus may contain the chemical.
Keeva Shultz, a junior environmental science and technology major who interns for the group, said it is highly probable the university’s chicken available for consumption contains traces of arsenic.
“The chicken they are serving is from a factory farm that might have it,” Shultz said. “It’s hard to tell because we’re not allowed to know what the poultry industry uses in their feed, but it’s very well possible. The only way to know if your chicken is poison-free is to buy organic, and that can be expensive.”
She added that because 100 percent of meat tested in fast-food restaurants has traces of arsenic, according to a study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, FWW believes the university also serves chicken containing the substance.
Dining Services Assistant Director Bart Hipple said he isn’t ready to formulate an opinion about the accusations yet.
“[Dining Services is] looking into it, but I do not have an answer for it all,” Hipple said. “I would want a lot more information. I’m trying to get a lot more information. Until I have information that I can count on, I can’t really have an opinion.”
Hipple said he did not know whether the university purchases its chicken from farms that use arsenic-laced feed. While Dining Services investigates the situation, Shultz is trying to report what she believes by getting the local community involved.
“We go postcarding; we go around to local businesses and ask them to sign onto the campaign,” she said. “We have letter-writing parties, where we write letters to local delegates to show them that our community cares. We have meetings with community members, where we talk about the campaigns and their concerns.”
In order to proactively educate the campus on the dangers of arsenic in food — which the group’s website said includes an increased risk of cancer, diabetes and neurological problems — Shultz also speaks in classrooms on the campus.
“The industrial process of growing thousands of chickens in concentrated conditions has driven the chicken industry to mass feed chickens a food additive that is arsenic-based,” she said. “Arsenic is being unnecessarily added to our food system and environment. It is affecting our waterways by leeching into the Chesapeake Bay from manure runoff.”
Sophomore business major Val Nam heard a presentation by Shultz in an environmental science class and immediately pledged her support afterward.
“I signed the petition because it’s wrong,” Nam said. “Arsenic is poison, and it’s hurting the chicken, it’s hurting the environment and it’s hurting us.”
Sophomore communication major Emily Cohen hasn’t seen the petition but said she was glad she steers clear of dining hall poultry.
“If that is true, if the university chicken does have arsenic in it, well then I guess it’s a good thing I don’t eat it,” she said.
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