About 80 percent of U.S. sales of rendered products are to feed manufacturers, according to the National Renderers Association. In April, Baas, president of Columbus-based Inland Products, and a delegation of Ohio renderers met with Gov. Bob Taft and other officials to explain their financial plight and to warn of the potential pollution problem posed by dead animals. Dean Slates, agricultural extension agent for Holmes County, agrees that renderers' recent unwillingness to pick up dead animals has caused significant disposal problems. But he doesn't think most people will resort to tossing carcasses into a ravine or dragging them into the woods. But it's hard to dig a big enough hole in frozen winter ground, and water and space conditions must be just right to meet EPA regulations.
Incineration is a neat solution, but the equipment and fuel are expensive.
Landfills willing to take dead animals are widely scattered and shrinking in number. The only other option is composting, a decade-old practice in the poultry business but one rarely used outside it. Slates has been a big supporter of composting poultry for years. But it's only been since the FDA ruminant feed ban that it's gotten serious interest from those dealing with larger carcasses, he said. A case in point comes from the Ohio Department of Transportation.