Petra and Ariany oppose the Son Brau chicken mega-farm in Manacor

Nobody wants it. As already happened with the Sineu mega-farm project where Maria and Llubí opposed the project, the initiative that the same company wants to carry out now in Manacor has also met with opposition from neighboring towns. Petra and Ariany are also raising their voices due to the project's proximity to their urban centers.

In fact, the neighborhood platform No Macrogranja a Son Brau has called a meeting today, Tuesday, in Petra (7:30 PM, at Les Escoles Velles) to provide all the information about the project and gain support.

Under the slogan "Let's save the territory, against the mega-farm," this neighborhood collective is making itself known and was born "to prevent the construction of an industrial chicken mega-farm in our municipality which has effects on its entire environment: nature, people, air, animals, road traffic…". Likewise, it has opened a digital environment where the project can be consulted, you can sign against the project and stay up to date on all the steps, agenda, and other initiatives of the platform.

digital environment  where the project can be consulted, you can sign against the project and stay up to date on all the steps, agenda, and other initiatives of the platform.

For now, the mayor of Petra, Salvador Femenias, and the mayor of Ariany, Joan Ribot, have expressed concern and are in tune with the neighborhood's concern and opposition to the chicken mega-farm project. They agree in pointing out that "it's not just about the farm itself, which is within Manacor's term and we can't say anything about it administratively, but the nuisances go beyond municipal boundaries and here, among other things, we will experience bad smells and flies."

In this regard, Femenias speaks from experience: "Consider that there is a pig farm between Petra and Son Serra, and occasionally it gives us some problems with flies and bad smells, and as far as we know, the chicken farm smells much worse and attracts more flies than pig slurry." If there is no new development, the mayor of Petra will attend today's Tuesday meeting to gather more information and show his position.

"All the consequences"

In Petra, the local delegation of L'Obra Cultural Balear has taken up the banner of leading the opposition to the mega-farm. Thus, Biel Bauçà, one of the members of the entity, explains that "in Petra, we have organized this meeting because, even though the mega-farm will not be built within the municipal district of Petra, the distance between the urban center of Petra and the mega-farm is 5,820 meters. This means that we will receive all the consequences, along with Ariany and Manacor".

"This meeting today," Bauçà adds, "is, above all, to make the town aware of the harmful effects this farm can have, beyond the smells from the spreading of manure and everything that an operation of this kind causes". "They want to disguise this mega-farm as a local and 'zero kilometer' product and all these paraphernalia that make it so "zero kilometer" - considering that the chickens lay here - it has very little. Because, of course, talking about bringing feed from the Peninsula and waste management... we'll see what management this company does, because it has a terrible track record at the farm they already have in Llucmajor".

"Furthermore, not to mention the nitrification of the waters that this can entail, that is to say, the nitrate levels, both in Petra and Manacor, are already very high. In Manacor they have even said that you cannot cook with that water. We are talking about drinking water in Pla de Mallorca running out, if one can say there is still any."

Finally, Bauçà points out that "more than a cry from Petra and Manacor, who are the main ones affected, it is a cry to our island. I believe that today, more than ever, we can take into account the cliché of "who loves Mallorca does not destroy it".