Out and About (Sort of): Perdue, Ben Franklin and Somber Comment by Howard Freedlander

Perhaps it’s the hot, humid and horrible weather, but I couldn’t focus on just one subject for this column. Bear with me—and three subjects with no relation to each other

I was impressed by an announcement two weeks ago by Perdue Foods that it was implementing animal welfare reforms in its breeding, raising and killing of chickens. I say this not because I am familiar with the specific initiatives of animal rights activists, but because I have always been impressed by the enlightened leadership of Jim Perdue, the third-generation chief executive officer of the Salisbury-based poultry producer.

As the Eastern Shore’s major industry, this international company has more than 2,000 contract growers and thousands of employees. Its new techniques will affect 700 million animals. This new initiative is a big deal.

Perdue plans to raise birds with no antibiotics. It intends to raise healthier chickens and increase their activity by exposing them to sunlight, adding herbs and probiotics to feed, providing more space and opportunities to explore. Chicken houses, readily seen from the back roads of Shore counties, now will have perches and bales of straw to “encourage natural behaviors that promote curiosity and activity,” according to a Perdue executive.

Of Perdue’s 4,500 chicken houses, 700 will have windows, with the purpose of doubling chicken activity in three years.
According to an article in The Baltimore Sun. Perdue has outdone its competitors in pursuing animal welfare measures. It worked with animal rights groups to establish its new practices.

The announcement drew my attention because of an experience 11 years ago when my 2005 Leadership Maryland class visited a Perdue plant in Salisbury. Our tour of the chicken-processing plant ended in a dark black room where the chickens were killed. I recall that some classmates were alarmed by the slaughtering process. I was not.

Since that visit, as well as a tour of a chicken house, I reexamined my reaction to my classmates’ repulsion at the bird killing. While I accepted the entire process as a logical one, I realized that more humane treatment might be considered. Jim Perdue has done just that—ahead of his competitors.

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One of my American heroes is Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father who was a politician, philosopher, businessman, diplomat—and, yes, a scientist, with no degrees after his name. His inventiveness recently cropped up, surprisingly and successfully.

The 28-foot lightning rod on top of the Maryland State House in Annapolis proved rather valuable when the state capital building was struck by lightning on Friday, July 1, just prior to our weekend celebration of its independence 240 years ago. This lightning rod, built to Dr. Franklin’s specifications, absorbed the strike as storms moved through the area.

When the inestimable, creative and practical Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod, he said it would effectively protect public buildings. And he was right, as usual. The lightning rod atop the State House is made of the same 18th century materials used by Dr. Franklin.

Fascinated by electricity and the link between it and lightning, Franklin envisioned an iron rod about eight to 10 feet long that sharpened to a point at the end. His British colleagues preferred blunt-tipped lightning rods, which they believed would be less likely to be struck. Guess what? Politics intervened. The British viewed Franklin’s concepts of protecting buildings just another example of disobedience by the colonies.
According to The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the lightning rod installed on the dome of the Maryland State House “was the

largest ‘Franklin’ lightning rod ever attached to a public or private building in Ben’s lifetime…the pointed lightning rod placed on the State House and other buildings became a symbol of the ingenuity and independence of a young, thriving nation, as well as the intellect and inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin.”

The British could not win an argument against the incomparable Benjamin Franklin.
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One last comment. A somber one in an otherwise upbeat column.

During the July 4th holiday weekend dinner at an Eastern Shore restaurant, our waitress commented that she was pregnant and concerned about the state of the world in which her child would live. She referred to the “stuff” her child would encounter.

Her comments preceded last week’s horrific killings in Baton Rouge, LA, Falcon Heights, MN and Dallas, TX. It’s senselessly easy to run out of adjectives to describe our nation’s violence.

Our waitress said she would do everything to provide a safe and secure environment for her child.

Will it be enough?

Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland.  Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He  also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer.  In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.