FRANKENSTEIN’S CHICKEN: UNDERSTANDING

LOCAL OPPOSITION TO BROILER FARMS

Beyond the Edge: Australia’s First Peri-Urban Conference, La Trobe 2013

Dr Elizabeth Taylor McKenzie Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning University of Melbourne

Chicken consumption in Australia

595,700,000

chickens p.a.

Chicken production types

Broiler system

Peri-urban conflict

“The question is how to reconcile the

starker reality of, say, broiler chicken

production, with the cosy images of a

‘rural idyll’” (Gilg 1996 quoted in

Henderson 2005 p110)

Early conflict and regulation: backyard chook banished

Early regulations

• Nuisance and public health

laws: late 19th century

• By-laws: 1915 and 1921 Local

Government Acts

• Deterring urban back yard and

small-scale operators

Larger operations, 1930s-1960s

• Larger operations on urban

fringe

• Issues with odour, health,

vermin, urban conflict

Planning appeals 1969-1997

Issues: Odour, noise, flies, vermin, traffic, residential amenity, tourist areas,

buffer zones

Modern broiler farm regulation

• Zoning: prohibited in urban, discretionary in farming and green wedge

• 52.13: must comply with Broiler Farm Code of Conduct

• Minimum separation distances based on farm size

• ‘Classes’ based on size and separation

• Avoiding or managing amenity and environmental impacts

• Conditions for odour, noise, dust, run-off, composting, etc.

• Pre-emptive exclusion of ‘sensitive uses’

• Allowing industry growth

Planning appeals 1998-2013

Issues: Odour, pollution, noise, visual amenity, rural-residential areas,

concentration, ‘sterilisation’, classification

Size of farms over time

Technical solutions

• “Thus while many of the concerns raised by the objectors suggests a need to look at the adequacy of the Broiler Code requirements, that is not our role. Our role is to determine whether this code has been complied with, as is required and as we have explained above”. (Catani 2012).

• “Residents…nonetheless, on hearing Dr Cowan’s evidence…remained concerned about the impacts of the proposal. In this regard Mr D’Oliveyra advised that the residents do not have the expertise or the resources to verify evidence of the technical nature that was presented by the two experts at the hearing”. (Beeac 2009).

• “[Proponents claim that] existing and proposed boundary buffers will be more than adequate to minimise any odour emissions. Superior technology is already implemented for the existing sheds…Inspections by Shire Officers have proven that any odours in area have not originated from the broiler farm – although the farm is routinely blamed”. (Nar Nar Goon 2007)

Role of spatial regulation

Amenity problem

Regulatory response

Increased size &

technology

Creepiness

‘Stop monster chicken factory’

• Odour dust etc. can be

managed technically

• Less so image control:

factory farming not

comfortably marketed

• Conflicts with rural-residential

expectations

• Land use conflicts also

channel uncomfortable

emotions

• Mix of Not In My Back Yard

(NIMBY) and Not On Planet

Earth (NOPE)

Responses to broiler farms

Grief / horror

NIMBY

NOPE

Frankenstein’s broiler chicken

• “It's not just a few chickens, it’s close to two million a year!” (Pakenham Gazette, 2011)

• “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (Frankenstein)

• “The ruthless efficiency, the relegation to a place out of sight, the sordid and undramatic lining up for mass slaughter; these are things we recognize only too well – when we think of them. And we prefer not to think of them for long”. (Visser 1986 p145).

Key references

• Gaynor, (2012) “Fowls and the Contested Productive Spaces of Suburbia”, in Atkins, P. (2012). Animal Cities, Farnham : Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2012.

• Henderson, S. R. (2005). "Managing land‐use conflict around urban centres: Australian poultry farmer attitudes towards relocation." Applied Geography 25(2): 97‐119.

• Huxley, M., (1984), “In Search of ‘The Good Life’: Being a Political Economy of Certain Local Government By‐Laws within the Metropolitan Area of Melbourne, Victoria”, Urban Policy and Research: 3(1).

Contact

• taylor.e@unimelb.edu.au