Can a farm be certified organic even if they fertilize with manure?

Tim, there is only one suitable answer to your question about what to do. Since consumers drive the production of chicken waste (about 1 million tons per year on Delmarva alone), then the consumers who honestly want to help the Bay should reduce their chicken consumption by at least 50% in the next year, and replace much of that with plant proteins, such as beans, nuts and healthier soy foods like tofu.

That's not to suggest that plant food crops are pollution-free, but they are much less polluting than any chicken farm.

Tim, thanks for including all of us in the realm of who is responsible here!
I disagree that consuming 1/2 as much chicken is a solution to the Bay's woes.
First, the amount of poultry manure spread on fields and the manner in which that's done have both improved a lot in the past few years, and I can't understand how this accounts for a major increase in nutrients over the short term.
Second, locally-produced poultry actually doesn't have a higher carbon footprint than tofu, produced overseas and imported at considerable energetic cost.
I suggest we look at farm fertilizer in the form of sewage sludge and how much nutrient pollution that is generating today. The most significant thing that has increased over that time span is the number of people in the Bay watershed, and they are all producing nutrient waste at the same rate per person, pretty much regardless of diet.

Judith,
Increased watershed population (a big part of the problem) necessarily implies more food consumption. Assuming that most fresh chicken sold at grocery stores and such is not shipped from Arkansas, Texas or California, chances are it was produced in the region, and most of the region is in the Bay watershed. So, how does more people not equal more chicken manure, and how can that not equal more Bay pollution?

Under any circumstance, 1 million tons of manure produced every single year on Delmarva cannot be spread prudently on available land. It must be either be over-applied, burned, used in cattle feed, or shipped out for other uses. Let's ask Eastern Shore residents if they have a shortage of chicken manure, but I doubt they'd be able to stop laughing at such a ridiculous question. If they don't have a shortage, that means they have an excess. Excess manure must be disposed of in some way. Can we bring a few hundred tons to your yard?

"Improved" does not mean suitable, appropriate, or in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. The state and feds acknowledge that chicken manure is a problem and most producers are not in compliance.

I don't know why you believe all American tofu is made overseas, but most of it is made in the US.

For more information, check out the United Nations report "Livestock's Long Shadow" published in 2006.

I have to agree with Mark's comment here. There is plenty we can do, but generally speaking, it is far less appealing to the mass public than just continuing not to question how the food on their plate gets there and to not take responsibility for it.

A change in eating habits is needed, which in turn requires an almost cultural change, and that won't be easy. Plants based foods are not completely guilt free when it comes to impact on the environment, but it's considerably less damaging than this scale of livestock farming.

Farmers are just using the cheapest and most efficient way to fertilise the soil, the government needs to bring in better incentives to use alternatives and/or offset the current damage they are doing.

But ultimately it requires getting the average person to take responsibility for the environment they live in, in a way that is appealing to them. How you get the average disconnected person to reconnect with the environment is beyond me.