...thanks to those dirty, Republican, egg farmers in Iowa.
...thanks to those dirty, Republican, egg farmers in Iowa.
Last edited by kc7jty; 08-25-2010 at 02:58 AM.
over 1/2 a billion of them by now ( 500.000.000) ( what's in a zero?) ;)
http://newsblaze.com/story/201008230.../topstory.html
The Man Behind the Egg Scandal
The Iowa attorney general called him a "habitual violator" of state laws.
Labor Secretary Robert Reich called his farms "atrocious."
A federal investigator said it was "inconceivable" he didn't know his farms' conditions.
Now, after decades of harming animals, workers and the environment, the Teflon Chicken Don, Austin "Jack" DeCoster, appears to be harming people.
So many eggs from egg farms he owns and egg laying chickens and feed from his supply operations have been implicated in the salmonella outbreak, the Commissioner of the FDA herself, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, was forced to make a statement.
Conditions on DeCoster owned egg farms have been in the news for years.
Maine Contract Farming, formerly the DeCoster Egg Farm, has a three decade-long complaint history from workers, neighbors, environmental officials, labor officials and humane workers.
In 1977 neighbors whose homes were infested with insects filed a $5 million lawsuit, claiming nose plugs and flyswatters should be the "new neighbor" kit.
In 1980, the DeCoster operation was charged with employing five 11-year-olds and a 9-year-old by the Labor department.
In 1988, 100,000 chickens burned to death in a fire and were left to decompose.
In 1992, DeCoster was charged by the state, with indenturing migrant workers, denying them contact with teachers, social workers, doctors, lawyers and labor organizers.
In 1996, federal investigators found DeCoster workers living in rat and cockroach infested housing and the egg operation was fined $3.6 million.
("The conditions in this migrant farm site are as dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop we have seen,'' said Labor Secretary Robert Reich; "I thought I was going to faint and I was only there a few minutes,'' said Cesar Britos, an attorney representing DeCoster workers, after entering a barn.")
In 2001 dead hens intermingled with live ones during truck transport sparked a complaint to the Department of Agriculture.
Workers' drinking water has been found contaminated with feces by OSHA and after a conciliatory "free" chicken banquet offered to workers, they were docked for their time eating it, reported the Portland Press Herald.
But Jack DeCoster, using Boston spinmeister George Regan for public relations, ha always avoided criminal convictions and farm closures and even expanded his empire from egg farms in Maine to pig farms in Iowa in the 1990s.
Last year, state officials raided DeCoster's Maine Contract Farming in Turner after being given undercover video from Chicago-based Mercy For Animals (MFA) showing hens suffocating in garbage cans, hens kicked into manure pits to drown and hens hanging by their feet half dead over egg conveyer belts.
For eight hours agriculture and state officials, including police troopers with a search warrant, documented conditions termed "deplorable, horrifying and upsetting" by state veterinarian Don Hoenig and removed dead and living hens for evidence.
Four Department of Agriculture workers were incapacitated from entering the ammonia filled barns and had to be treated by doctors for burned lungs. OSHA launched an investigation. If humans became sick from a short time in the barns, imagine working - or living in a battery cage - there.
But eggs farms are only half the problem. Since male chicks are of no use to the egg industry, newly born males are ground up alive at hatcheries owned by DeCoster and others. Video shot by Mercy For Animals last year at Hy-Line Hatchery in Spencer, Iowa clearly shows healthy male chicks, peeping and bouncing as they greet the world, fed into the blades of the macerator like so much litter. Hello! Goodbye! http://www.truth-out.org/090309C
"I saw a bloody slush coming out of the bottom of the grinder," writes an MFA investigator, who worked in the Hy-Line "transfer room" and on the cleaning crew. "The plant manager told me that the ground-up male chicks were used in dog food and fertilizer."
Nor does the US trade group United Egg Producers deny the daily grinding up alive of baby males. "There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens," spokesman Mitch Head told The Associated Press last year. "If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we're happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need."
As the salmonella egg scandal spreads, authorities say they are having a hard time tracing the egg industry's "distribution chain" of which DeCoster is such a major part. That's because when it only harmed animals, workers and the environment they let it run unregulated.
"If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop
telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)
“I’m not liberal/conservative, I’m anti-idiotarian.”
At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution
:roll:Yea, the price of my breakfast sandwich went up $1 today. Yep, those Republican farmers that manufactured a crisis so they could ge richer!!!
[/sarcasm]
If it's a war on drugs, then free the POW's.
About the only issue I take with the posting there 'Cor is the grinding up of live male chicks.
True, it's horrific. But, it's nothing illegal here about it in the US, unfortunately.
Almost exactly true. They have held up reform legislation that grants greater control to government for regulating operations like those of DeCoster who is to eggs what Don Blankenship is to mining. You can bet your ass he doesn't eat his own eggs for breakfast.Originally Posted by W1GUH
Come on guys, it was just a matter of time. Did you ever see where those things come from? Hell yes eggs will kill you.
What about the cost of sperm?
If it's a war on drugs, then free the POW's.
Following in the footsteps of Rick Scott, he'll probably be the next Iowan republican candidate for governor.
“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
--Philip K. Dick
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articl...he-netherlands
The Netherlands is a major producer of eggs and egg products, with the majority of production being exported, according to a new report Livestock, Meat and Eggs in the Netherlands 2010 published by the Product Boards for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE).
IKB Quality Scheme
Dutch supermarkets sell only eggs produced according to the IKB quality regulations, as shown by the IKB logo on the packaging. This IKB scheme for total surveillance of animal production guarantees the quality and food safety of its products.
Under the IKB quality scheme, all eggs are stamped with a code identifying the farm where they were produced, so they can be traced back to the farm of origin. The code also indicates how the hens are housed. The code also indicates the country, farm and henhouse where the egg was produced.
The quality and food safety is constantly safeguarded in all the links in the chain through strict legislation, monitoring programmes and inspections. The Dutch poultry sector, civil society organisations and the supermarkets consult frequently about the policy. The Netherlands is a major producer of eggs and egg products. The majority of production – two-thirds – is exported.
Consumption
For the first time in three years, egg consumption grew again in 2009. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 egg consumption was 182 eggs per capita; in 2009 this figure rose to 184. This increase can mainly be attributed to greater use of eggs in processed products such as ice cream, cakes and pastas.
Proceeds, Production and Population
The laying hen population increased in 2009 by 800,000 hens to reach 32 million birds. The number of farms decreased in 2009 by 15 to 1,092. The higher number of hens was mainly accounted for by the growth in the number of hens being kept in alternative housing systems. Last year, the total laying hen population consisted of 43 per cent cage hens, 42 per cent deep litter hens, 13 per cent free-range hens and two per cent organic hens. Egg production in 2009 is calculated at 9.7 billion eggs, that is almost 200 million more than in 2008.
The operating results of the laying sector showed a great improvement in 2009. According to calculations of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI) the balance between cost and profits has more than doubled to reach €7 per per hen per year. This was chiefly caused by the higher prices for eggs, as a result of a sharp increase in the demand for eggs from Germany. As well as the far higher prices achieved for eggs, the lower feed prices also contributed to this considerably improved balance. On an annual basis, feed prices have dropped by 17 per cent.
Number of eggs produced 2010 approximately 100 billion.
The Netherlands enjoys an excellent reputation for its knowledge of agro-technology.
This applies equally to plant-based products and for products of animal origin.
Some three quarters of the meat is destined for countries outside the Netherlands, and the country is also the largest exporter of eggs in the world.
Quality control and government oversight on this is strickt and with lots of unannounced checks warranted.
Any firm found to breach the strickt rules can be closed in an eyeblink.
"If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop
telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)
“I’m not liberal/conservative, I’m anti-idiotarian.”
At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution
But, we can't do that here! That's socialism! And Nazism! And Marxist!
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