Manacor, on a war footing over the macro-farm: "It will affect mental and physical health"

Manacor“We ask the Manacor City Council and the Government to stop this aberration which, among other things, will produce eight tons of manure daily. When it rains, they will intoxicate all the aquifers that reach the city,” denounced this Wednesday afternoon Sílvia Llull, one of those affected by the mega-farm of 80,000 laying hens that the company Avícola Son Perot wants to build on the Manacor estate of Son Brau.

More than 150 people filled Espai Na Camel·la yesterday for the information meeting against the project convened by the future neighborhood opposition platform. “We will constitute ourselves soon and activate social networks so that everyone who wants to can support us, and to organize future actions”. For now, a signature collection (with forms at Bar Mallorquí and Calvalcan) and the drafting of objections to a project, which has been on public exhibition since May 28, have already begun.

The company Avícola Son Perot SA intends to carry out the construction of a new poultry farm for egg production on a plot located in the municipality of Manacor, near the residential area of Son Talent, along the Ma-3322 road.

Two weeks ago, the environmental impact study was published in the BOIB, which specifies that the poultry farm will consist of two laying hen houses, with a capacity of 40,000 hens per house.

Javier Jara, a winemaker and resident of Son Brau, recalls that the area is “very rich in endemic species of Mallorca; there is an incredible variety of birds between 40 and 50 different ones, in addition to the mammals that still remain there”. Jara’s farm, furthermore, has ceded since 1979 the right of way for the path that leads, among other places, to Son Brau. “A path that has dangerous curves, with poor visibility and that is in no way prepared for trucks or heavy vehicles like those that transport chickens to pass through”.

Neighbors too close

The closest urban land for residential use to the farm is the Son Talent residential area, located on the outskirts of Manacor and at a distance of 4,435 meters from the planned livestock facilities. The distance to the urban center of Manacor is 5,560 meters, while to the urban center of Petra it is 5,820 meters and to that of Ariany, 6,610 meters.

But as the farmer and resident Xavier Coll explains, “there are many more people who live in scattered houses within this radius of less than four kilometers, some very close by.” In fact, Sílvia Llull's parents live just 170 meters away from the planned macro-farm. “This will affect the physical and mental health of many of us in the area and all of Manacor, not only because of the smells, but also because of the possible contamination of water and the noise of the turbines for 24 hours”.

“In addition to the bad smells, the chicken manure will also change the pH of the land. Because it is also mixed with carcasses. The project foresees 2,400 carcasses per year, a false and misleading figure, because the moment there is any illness, it will be much greater,” says Llull.

Some councilwomen from the Manacor City Council's governing team, technicians, and the lawyer Xisca Mas also attended the information meeting, who warned of the possible “fraud of law that the separation of the project into two sheds of 40,000 chickens entails to avoid being six kilometers away at a minimum, which is what the law dictates for a macro-farm like this one”.

The City Council will try to stop the macro-farm

The Manacor City Council has become a key player in the processing of the mega-farm planned by Avícola Son Perot in Son Brau, with a capacity for 80,000 laying hens.

The Council has recently received the project and has distributed it among various technical areas – Urban Planning, Environment, Mobility, and Police – so that they can issue the corresponding reports, which will be decisive in evaluating its local viability.

Although these reports are not binding, the City Council trusts that the technical considerations may carry weight in the final decision of the Balearic Government, which is the one competent to authorize or reject the project.

In parallel, the Council admits that issues such as water consumption, the impact on aquifers, access, and possible disturbances for residents will be key in the analysis of an initiative that is already generating opposition in the Son Talent area.