STATEMENT FROM AGRICULTURE SECRETARY BUDDY HANCE ON MEETING WITH U.S. SENATOR MIKULSKI AND MARYLAND POULTRY INDUSTRY LEADERS

EASTON, MD (July 8, 2011) – Maryland Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance today participated in a roundtable discussion with U.S. Barbara Mikulski and leaders from Maryland’s poultry industry at the Talbot County Community Center in Easton.

“I thank Senator Mikulski for her commitment to Maryland Agriculture and her steadfast support of Maryland’s top agricultural industry – poultry. The poultry industry is critically important to Maryland, providing thousands of jobs and supporting many small businesses.

The recent Ch. 11 bankruptcy filing by Allen Family Foods highlights how poultry is an integral part of our rural economies. The poultry industry directly supports 8,000 jobs on Maryland’s Eastern Shore from the poultry and grain growers, processors, to the truck drivers, suppliers, gas station operators, convenience stores, restaurants and other small business owners who all indirectly rely on the industry. We continue to fight for these jobs, preserve farmland and strengthen our family-owned farms and businesses. We also know that well-managed agricultural land provides open, green space and offers many more environmental benefits than developed land.

The poultry industry is Maryland’s leading agricultural sector, accounting for $640 million (40 percent) of farm income in 2009. Maryland broiler production ranked eighth among states in broilers produced in 2010. Most of the grain grown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore is used for chicken feed. According to the Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc., poultry companies operating on the Delmarva Peninsula employ 14,700 people. There are over 1,660 family farms that raise chickens in association with the five poultry integrators operating on the Delmarva Peninsula with 780 in Maryland.”