Sustainability

Environmental sustainability

In the minds of many sustainability refers to some sort of notion about 'doing no harm'to one or more elements of the environment.

Having a net zero effect on carbon output is a significant issue for Angus Council, which in the Angus Local Development Plan (ALDP) has the stated aim of “ ….. making (Angus) a low carbon, natural and resilient place .. “.

Outwardly, this makes the applicant’s ideas of using solar panels, heat pumps, wind energy, water re - cycling and growing their own feed seem very attractive, as he presents the notion of doing no harm

This is however rather like the Emperor’s new clothes, as what this proposal overlooks is that despite using all the renewable energy sources, this development will still be responsible for producing an awful lot of carbon dioxide.

Admittedly this might not be as much as it would be if the applicant chose to use consumable energy and relied totally on brought in food, but this overlooks the fact that the development will still be producing a lot of carbon dioxide, which is contrary to one of the main stated aims of the ALDP. Furthermore, it remains to be seen exactly how efficient the renewable energy sources prove to be in practice, and how much additional feed and other resources have to be trucked in (and out). It is easy to overlook that ‘carbon net zero’ developments still produce a lot of carbon dioxide, and this one is no exception.

In a letter to the many residents affected by the proposed development, CFL suggested that it would create some form of circular economy, where "wheat and barley consumed by the hens can be produced on our farm, saving haulage" and "… hen manure, which we currently haul in, can be spread on our land....." (1).

Our calculations suggest that CFL does not have enough land at Cononsyth to produce adequate wheat to feed 64,000 hens for a full year. We also question whether barley will be used in the feed mix, because hens find it particularly difficult to digest and, if it is used, then food formulation becomes more complex because additives must be included in the mix to promote digestion.

The feed for laying hens is a complex mix of ingredients and the relative contribution made by each of these different ingredients to global warming is shown in the table. The soy meal is usually imported from South America and is often associated with rainforest deforestation (2). This is also true of palm oil, which is included in the vegetable oil mix.

Therefore reducing the haulage associated with the cereal component of the feed will only be a very minor part of the total carbon footprint, and it is also important to note that this carbon footprint reduction is only achieved if the food mix is formulated on site.