A large protest is set to take place in Hereford city centre on Saturday, with environmental campaign groups gathering to draw attention to the climate crisis and issues facing the River Wye.
Press Release from Marches Climate Action:
Easter Saturday 8th April will bring environmental campaign groups onto the streets of Hereford, with street theatre bringing a new angle to their concerns over pollutant damage to the River Wye.
From 10am in High Town ‘Lady Wye’ will be putting AvaraCargill ‘in the dock’, bringing to ‘the court of public opinion’ her evidence that Cargill knew many years ago of the damage that would be done to her and her ecosystem by proliferation of Intensive Poultry Units near her riverbanks.
Cargill will be forced to appear in public for the first time, after years of hiding behind its subsidiary Avara, to face the accusation of ‘rivercide’ and hear a ‘victim statement’ from Lady Wye claiming that her natural rights have been poo’d upon by AvaraCargill’s chickens.
‘Witnesses’ will be on hand in the form of some of the 20 million chickens responsible for the phosphate-rich manure that is killing the River Wye, together with a variety of aquatic life-forms and local businesses that are suffering badly as a result.
A silent troupe of ‘Red Rebels’ will mourn and give witness to the impending loss of this treasured ecosystem: before its rapid decline due to phosphate pollution the River Wye was for many years regarded as the most beautiful river in England.
From High Town a samba-led procession will then make its way past Tesco – whom the group accuse of supporting this damage through purchasing Avara poultry – to the Avara processing plant on Red Barn Drive where a ‘summons’ will be served calling on AvaraCargill to admit its culpability and pay full reparations for damage to the Wye.
Avara will also be symbolically reminded that some 700 letters in support of the Marches Climate Action (MCA) campaign have been sent to its CEO Andy Dawkins without response so far.
These letters call on the company to immediately ensure no further phosphates enter the river from its many contracted Intensive Poultry Units, to cease any expansion and downsize its operations as these exceed the ‘carrying capacity’ of the Wye catchment, and to stop importation of Brazilian soya as poultry-feed.
Following recent revelations in a US court where Cargill, multinational parent-company of Avara, was found guilty of damaging the River Illinois in the same way as the Wye and ordered to pay reparations, MCA are now also calling on AvaraCargill to step up and pay full reparations here also.
Organised by MCA with active support from local and national organisations equally concerned, this Saturday’s event follows last week’s closedown of the Avara feedmill at Allensmore by Extinction Rebellion, and recent MCA-organised events outside Tesco’s when hundreds of signed messages were collected from concerned shoppers calling on the supermarket giant to stand by its own environmental policies and cease purchasing poultry from Avara.
“The impending death of the Wye is not some terrible accident” explained MCA spokesperson and local business-owner Tara Heinemann, “but rather the predictable result of reckless profiteering: partly by multinational Cargill which created Avara as its subsidiary and imports Brazilian soya to feed their millions of chickens, and partly by Tesco whose poultry-purchasing contract drives this murderous supply-chain.
“Poultry manure is responsible for much of the phosphate pollution which has been a principal cause of the dramatic deterioration in the health of the River Wye, now said to be near the point of ecological death.
“This not only damages the ecosystem but also the valuable tourist industry impacting local businesses, and local people who can no longer enjoy the river or swim in it safely.”
Using slogans including ‘Cheap Chicken Ain’t Cheap’ and ‘Cargill Knew’, MCA say they have every reason to identify Avara, its parent company Cargill, and Tesco as jointly culpable of ecocide due to damage wrought locally and globally.
More information can be found on the campaign group’s website www.MarchesClimateAction.com
