Kansas Residents Block Plans for Tyson Factory Farm

A crowd of approximately 2,500 residents attended a meeting earlier this month to voice their concerns over the construction of a chicken factory farm in Leavenworth County, KS. Meat giant Tyson Foods filed a proposal earlier this month to construct a $320 million “poultry complex” in the county that would slaughter 1.25 million chickens per week. The proposal was met with local resistance, with residents citing concern over the waste, smell, pollution, and other negative environmental impacts the factory farm would produce. After the meeting, Tyson issued an open letter to residents to inform them that it would put its factory farm proposal on hold. In attendance at the meeting was nonprofit group Citizens Against Project Sunset (CAPS), which formed for the purpose of keeping Tyson out of its community. “Tomorrow we must wake up more committed and determined to continue this fight,” CAPS board member Jarret Pruitt said, adding that “the chickenization of northeast Kansas will not be tolerated!”