As worries about global warming and oil prices hit home, the latest brainwave for energy production comes in the shape of chicken litter. A plan has been mooted to build a GBP100m power plant in the North using what the companies involved call "green power".
Rose Energy, an initiative of leading poultry producers Moy Park and O'Kane poultry and farmers co-op Glenfarm Holdings, has put forward proposals for a 30 megawatt power plant outside Glenavy in Co.Antrim.
The Euro30 million that the power plant requires from the public purse may be a bit of a problem. Just as the mushroom folk found when they were pressing the agriculture minister in December for funding, there ain’t a lot in the pot. And that goes for every Department!
Stalker wonders will there be any knock-on effect for the mushroom industry with this latest power generation initiative. As we all know, chicken litter is a vital constituent in the best composts made in Ireland.
As one compost man put it – chicken litter is "the rocket fuel for compost."
A new demand for it in the realm of electricity generation, would inevitably push the cost of compost up - then the chickens will come home to roost.
