Talking Squawk: Friends Alum on Maryland Poultry Pollution

Time for another Guest Post! Recent alum involved in Maryland environmental work emailed sustainability@friendsbalt.org to tell us about her work on poultry pollution:

Hi everyone! I'm Lindsey Sellman, Friends Class of 2014. This summer I worked as a canvasser for a non-profit organization that you may have heard of called Food and Water Watch. It is located right on Hopkins campus in a building right across from the shopping center with Chipotle, Potbelly, and Starbucks.

This summer we worked to pass a bill called the Poultry Fair Share Act-- a bill in which would hold the large, corporate poultry producers of Maryland's eastern shore accountable for their own mess in the Bay, as they dump millions of pounds of chicken waste into the Bay each year. This summer, I knocked on doors and encouraged people to donate to our organization and write letters to their senators and O'Malley supporting the Poultry Fair Share Act. 

Food and Water Watch has offices in other cities around the U.S. including Cincinnati (only about 40 minutes from my college, Miami University), Austin, TX, East Lansing, Michigan, and New Brunswick, NJ. This summer, I had the opportunity to work with people from the other offices. The office in Austin recently banned the distribution of plastic bags in stores throughout the city. The office in Michigan is working to clean up the Great Lakes and follow the Clean Water Act. The Baltimore office has worked to ban fracking in Maryland. I hope you guys can take a look at my blog, as it explains how passionate I am for this awesome organization!