“Doing the right thing is things like treating your chickens humanely,” Jim Perdue, the company’s chairman, says in a promotional video. The company’s labels carry a seal of approval from the Department of Agriculture asserting that the bird was “raised cage free,” and sometimes “humanely raised,” although it says it is phasing that one out.
Customers approve. Most of us are meat-eaters who still want animals treated humanely, and one survey found that 85 percent of consumers would prefer to buy chicken with a cage-free “humanely raised” label like Perdue’s.
Enter Craig Watts, 48, a North Carolina farmer who says he raises about 720,000 chickens each year for Perdue. He watched the video of Jim Perdue and had an attack of conscience. “My jaw just dropped,” he said. “It couldn’t get any further from the truth.”
So Watts opened his four chicken barns to show how a Perdue chicken lives. It’s a hellish sight.
An excellent and truthful article.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the cage free label I was furious, knowing this was a joke.
Whats your choice? Find a true free roaming farm to buy from.
The correct term for what Mr Watts does is "houses" chickens. Today's chicken farmers aren't farmers at all, they are nothing more than glorified caretakers thanks to vertical integration. Perdue controls everything from the feed, to the administering of drugs, to the temperature of the houses, to what they're willing to pay for the product. The farmer has little choice when he signs his contract. Furthermore, Perdue and others pay their animal caretakers on a tournament model, pitting farmers against each other. In theory and on paper, the system is brilliant. But in reality the farmer has zero control over his profit or loss. It is dependent upon what quality of bird the company sends you. Get a sick batch and you loose, the company takes no responsibility.
ReplyDeleteWhile the company owns the birds, they don't own the waste the birds produce, it is the farmer's responsibility to pay for the disposal of tons of waste from every flock. To mitigate that cost, a lot of farmers will leave the manure in the house for several flocks creating an extremely toxic environment for the birds and humans. Also, when birds die, it is the farmer's responsibility to dispose of the dead birds which can be quite costly and destroy profits, especially if you get a bad flock from the company.
There are alternatives. There are several free range humane growers on the shore who sell their product at local farmers markets. I buy from Great Expectation Farm at the Camden Farmers Market on Tuesday. Boneless breasts are $6/lb which is about 30% higher than grocery store meat. It's a price I'm willing to pay. The meat actually has flavor and a great texture. Nutritionally it is much more dense than store bought meat. So from a nutritional standpoint, I'm getting more for less.
Until big ag's stronghold on the Eastern Shore is broken, we will not grow.....except chickens that is.
11:52 - to add to what you've stated, if the contracts were required (by whatever authority) to include hauling away the manure along with the 'product', the farmers wouldn't be saddled with the process, the process would be standardized by the 'product' owner, and less bad stuff would make its way in to the bay.
ReplyDeleteThis is where the PMT should have gone in the first place.....
11:25 Unfortunately, they are few and far between. I decided to just do it all myself, and it's been the best decision ever. Here's a helpful hint... if you go to a cash and carry farm, ask to look around, and visit the animals. If they refuse, walk away and try the next one.
ReplyDelete12:02...Spot on
ReplyDelete11;25...Good on ya. Unfortunately I live in city limits which doesn't allow me to have livestock. That may be changing as I know the Mayor and City Council are considering some legislation to that effect. Agree 100% on the cash and carry comment, I've been to the farm on several occasions and have always been not only welcomed but encouraged to tour the facilities. They want their customers to have more connection to the food they eat.
With the PMT and now this revelation, the big-P is in for a rough ride.
ReplyDelete1:22 - I feel sorry for their employees - they'll get hung out to dry. New hires - don't buy a home here...rent one.....that way when you get the rug pulled out from under you, your not stuck at a loss with property that you can't sell easily....
ReplyDeleteNote that Perdue blamed it immediately on the operator.....
ReplyDeleteWe need better contracts written to protect the operator....letting them dictate the contract makes them the fox guarding the chicken house......
You are a bunch of idiots. If you people get your wish and drive Perdue out of Salisbury and Md for that matter Salisbury will become a bigger sh t hole than it is now. Perdue, other than the State of MD. the largest employer in Salisbury and if it leaves you can kiss the tax base goodbye, not only for Salisbury, but Wicomico County as well. God I am glad I left the State of MD
ReplyDeleteIf Perdue were to close up shop and move to say...tax free Delaware, it would cripple wicomico county. Imagine all Them people out of work. Maybe then you know it all's would be happy. If you knew what you think you know, you wouldn't be complaining.
ReplyDelete2:10 I echo your statement.
ReplyDeleteit's unconscionable the amount of stupidity emanating from the previous comments.
last time i checked, nobody forced all of you tards to buy Perdue chicken.
if you want farm raised chickens go buy all the $6.00 per pound chickens you can find.. LOL
God, i hope someday you uneducated morons have to feed yourselves.
it will be fun to watch you eat each other.
God I am glad I left the State of MD
ReplyDeleteDecember 5, 2014 at 2:10 PM
So are we.
I see we have a couple of Perdue employee's on here. Scared bro?
ReplyDeleteI dunno about all this crap. My grandfather, father, myself and now my son have raised broilers commercially for Showell Poultry, Perdue and now Mountaire. For some strange reason we have made a very nice living and have accumulated considerable net worth. We have never looked upon the integrators as predators or enemies and have had cordial, mutually profitable relationships with them. I guess people like us, the majority, just aren't newsworthy. It seems like only the irresponsible screw-ups get new coverage.
ReplyDelete@ 4:40pm If you read the true underlying message in the We Hate Perdue comments herein, what you'll really see is the jealousy over Succe$$. I too once worked for Perdue way back in the early 1970's. Not a great job, but not a bad one either. They treated me fairly. On another note, regarding these poor Chicky Lickies whose every terrible moment of life, sensitive humans seem to be concerned, I am apparently a severe abuser of BiG Bird. I prefer my thighs feather free and deboned, my whole chickens already hacked to death, Perdue calls it Cut Up, plus I prefer the jaundice yellow look. Maybe the word Cut Up is a little slaughterhouse humor? Anyway, only a fool would wish ill to the only real business that Delmarva has, the chicken industry. For you negative Nancy's, China agrees with you completely and wants you to help them force our government to sell only those well cared for Chinky Chickens from China and then close down all of our chicken industry. If you're familiar with other Chinese Food products, you'll have a good idea of what kind of chicken they'll send to America. Kinda like that cancer causing caustic dry wall a few years back. I'll bet that many, if not all of the bitchers on this thread have wrapped their lips around some form of chicken raised right here on Delmarva within the last week, yet when someone posts a Let's Hammer the Delmarva Chicken Industry story and every whack job that can read (Not comprehend) gets on board. Kinda like the small minds that always jump on the Racial Train of Hate, huh? Bon Appetit' little peeps. I Love Dead Animals, especially Chickens ---Tasty!
Delete2:19 --
ReplyDeletePerdue could relocate, albeit at great expense, to Delaware, but the poultry producers could not be moved there, and the plant employees would follow to the new location.
Jim Perdue made a big donation to Anthony Brown's campaign fund -- how's that working for you.
ReplyDeletePerdue Harvestland Chicken
ReplyDeleteOctober 28th, 2014
Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit because Perdue agreed to remove the “humanely raised” label from the Harvestland chicken packaging. (Roy et al v. Perdue Farms, Inc., Case No. 13-cv-01656, M. D. FL.). This labeling change also led to the voluntary dismissal of another class-action filed against Perdue in New Jersey for the same reasons. (Hemy et al v. Perdue Farms, Inc., ABC Corporations 1-10, and John Does 1-10, Case No. 11-cv-00888, D. NJ.).
Love, love, love Perdue Chicken. Many morons are posting here today.
ReplyDeleteLike, what's a "chicken barn"?
ReplyDelete5:05 - And one of them is you.
ReplyDelete"You are a bunch of idiots. If you people get your wish and drive Perdue out of Salisbury and Md for that matter Salisbury will become a bigger sh t hole than it is now."
ReplyDeleteNo one has mentioned driving Perdue out of Salisbury, they will leave in due time on their own accord. After a recent conversation I had with a high level person at the Md Dept of Agriculture, it became apparent that the poultry industry's days are numbered on the Eastern Shore. It's not a matter of "if" but one of "when". And yes, Salisbury will become a bigger sh t hole than it is now when that happens.....in the short term. The poultry industry, while a massive economic engine for the Eastern Shore has a vested interest in holding us back. The majority of poultry jobs are in the plants on the line and are low paying, monotonous and dangerous. The turnover rate is quite high. The poultry industry needs a large work force of low skilled, uneducated people to keep the wheels turning and what better way to do this than to keep the Eastern Shore a sh t hole.
Look at the area surrounding the downtown Salisbury plant. Prior to 1968 when Perdue bought that property and turned it into a processing plant, the neighborhood was decidedly middle class with neatly kept modest homes. 8 years later, it had deteriorated dramatically and has never bounced back. It is in Perdue's interest to keep that neighborhood down to provide cheap housing within walking distance of the plant for it's work force.
Perdue has been quietly selling off or moving different divisions of it's Salisbury operation over the past few years. Is this a harbinger of more to come and is it an industry wide trend to shift focus away from the Eastern Shore? I don't know but the signs seem to point in that direction.
5:48 --
ReplyDeleteSpot on. Salisbury would be much better off if Perdue had not done that plant on Route 50. And it would be better off in the long run if it were demolished.
As pointed out above, the workers would go to wherever it was relocated.
ok 5:48
ReplyDeleteyou sound like an expert
so which divisions of the Salisbury operation, or any operation on Delmarva, has Perdue moved or sold off?
You're just another blowhard that's too smart by half.
Perdue has actually INCREASED production on the shore you dolt.
In fact, they are sending all of the Pennsylvania organic production to Milford to process.
I suppose you'd rather have people on the government dole than actually working, albeit in such a hard and dangerous job as you so eloquently describe.
One problem with that though, you've obviously never worked in one.
Instead of talking to a "high level" oooh, Dept. of Ag genius, maybe you should just look around.
Perdue is not leaving the shore, as much as it appears you want them to.
You can take yourself and all your PETA loon friends with you and go back across the bridge to where you belong.
I really feel sorry for those who due to finances aren't able to eat real good food.
ReplyDeletePerdue chicken stinks-literally. The odor is putrid and it stays on your hands for hours no matter how many times you wash.
The free range chickens don't have this odor.
2nd year we've gotten a free range turkey. Cost over $70 for a 20 pounder but worth every penny. No odor and doesn't have that bad taste that's in the factory farmed turkey and chickens.
If you try free range you will never go back to the grocery store stuff.
I agree with 5:48. The chicken companies are the major cause of the blight in the area. Get them out of here, and things may go downhill for awhile, but then more businesses would be willing to relocate or open without the slaughter house in the neighborhood.
ReplyDelete6:31
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ Marie!!
You blame the chicken companies for the blight??
What an asinine statement.
that's like saying it's white peoples fault more blacks are in jail.
"Go downhill for awhile???"
God almighty that is just incredibly small minded.
How many people that live in that "blighted" area actually work for a living?
You people commenting about this are seriously deficient in economics.
I suggest you all go back to elementary school and read up on what will happen to this small town if 20,000 people lose their jobs.
I don't work for Perdue. I grow for Perdue. The manure your so worried about..... Yea the farmer is paid well by other companies to pick up our manure. Chucking waste is a very profitable business. The farmers arnt burdened with that cost at all. Second. If you manage your farm correctly, it will produce nice uncaged, and happy birds. They arnt medicated like you know it all's think. They get vaccinated for specific diseases just like we do. It's called a flu shot.
ReplyDeleteFunny how the only thing you hear is negative about Perdue. I challenge anyone to walk into a Perdue chicken house, then walk in any of the competing brands. The difference is unbelievable. Perdue houses have to meet a very high standard to get a contract. You only get what you put into it. If you don't want to work hard, your going to loose a lot of money.
5:48 what are you on...drugs. chickens are the eastern shore.
ReplyDeletePreach it 8:43. Well said
ReplyDelete8:43-I suggest you read The Meat Racket. I suggest you research and investigate all the other areas where the main employer is related to the meat packing industry.
ReplyDeleteThe overwhelming majority of employees of these companies make well below poverty level wages.
This is what causes blight-Einstein.
This is what causes homes to lose value because what, 80%+ of the employees of an area's major employer can't afford to buy homes. This is what causes high taxes because the employees are supplemented with tax payers money in the form of welfare entitlements.
Don't think you will ever match wits with me 8:43 because one thing I can assure you-you can't.
When Pilgrims Pride pulled out of a small town in VA, the area went from blight to bright when the growers with a USDA grant bought the facility and formed a co-op. Read up on it-Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative. The VPGC is just one of several such stories. Blight to Bright when factory farming leaves an area, especially an area like this so close to several major metropolitan areas.
8:43 said-"You people commenting about this are seriously deficient in economics."
ReplyDeleteAre you aware what vertically integrated means and how it relates to the chicken industry and economics.
Economics 101 dictates that vertical integration is always bad for an economy. It is described as "the socialist economy" by some economists.
What we don't know is how many business firms who came to visit in order to evaluate moving here decided "no way" when they drove into Salisbury on Route 50 past that plant.
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact that many retirees have decided not to move here as soon as they got a whiff while driving by.
*:43 --
ReplyDeleteBetter check your numbers, Jim!
It stands to reason the IF you know what "vertically integrated" means, you would realize that very little money is flowing back into the community when a business engages in the practice.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, if there were more small privately owned meat processors in an area, growers would have a choice where to take their product, and prices would be higher. If they had a choice where to buy feed and supplies, more feed stores would be around and offering competition. All this creates more better paying jobs and makes an area flourish.
10:13 - You're absolutely right. China does indeed want to sell chicken to the US. But it's not exactly the government, it's Tyson China and Cargill China. Both companies have been investing heavily in Chinese production of poultry and have been working hard to bring that production into a vertically integrated business model. Including company owned grow out facilities. In other words, the poultry industry would appear to be positioning itself to "offshore" poultry production. Ask yourself this: Since vertical integration became the norm in poultry production in the 1960's, only one aspect of the production chain has been outsourced, that being the grow out portion. Why then would two of the largest poultry producers in the US be developing a model in China that would INCLUDE the grow out phase in the form of company owned farms?? Answer - Because in China, it is profitable for the company to do so. in the US, not so much. The risk of the grow out phase of production has never been profitable to the company in the US for many reasons. And has become more risky in recent years due to environmental issues, high cost of construction and company imposed upgrades.
ReplyDeleteMore than 80% of grow out farmers i.e. "chicken farmers" in the US have to rely on other sources of income to support the farm. Of the less than 20% who try and do it full time, 71% live below the poverty line. These are researchable and verifiable facts that I'll leave to you to research.
New poultry house construction on the Eastern Shore is at a virtual standstill. Industry statistics state that at the current rate of new chicken house construction, the poultry industry on the Eastern Shore is unsustainable in the long term. We are at a point of saturation in more ways than one.
Recent surveys say that half of the farm land on the Eastern Shore is already over saturated with phosphorous and the rest isn't far behind. Soon will come the day when grow out farmers will have to pay to have a majority of chicken house litter removed as it will no longer be a viable option to sell it as fertilizer due to it's high phosphorous content. Since the growers are responsible for the litter not the company. That expense will fall solely on them, which, in many cases will tip the balance sheet and force a majority out of business.
In August, Perdue sold several assets of it's Heritage division, including intellectual property rights and breeder facilities. The company that bought them is Cobb Vantress who owns a majority of the broiler breeder facilities in the US and is owned by........wait for it..........TYSON!!! And can you believe one month prior to the acquisition by Cobb they also acquired a majority stake in Hubei Tong Xing Agriculture Co. Ltd. making them the first US company to take a major shareholding position in a Chinese broiler breeding company. Coincidence??
Again, I firmly believe it is not an "if", but a "when" Big C vacates the Eastern Shore.
Perdue is correct in blaming the operator. With out actually testing them, looks to me like a disease call dermatitis. This usually kills several several birds.
ReplyDeleteIt comes from not taking care of your litter or birds properly.
Second, regarding birds with bad legs. They should be culled within their first week in your house. They obliviously have a defect, so therefore should not be raised for human consumption.
I grow for Mountaire, who has different standards I'm sure.
If my birds looked like that, I would be shut down. Simple as that. You do it correctly and humanely or they won't bring you any more biddies.
And I agree. What they hell is a chicken barn lol. Just goes to show you the author has no idea what they are talking about.
2:34, that is not derm. Perdue keeps trying to introduce different genetics into their "Perdue breed" line. The result is what you see in the video. What happens is what was a healthy bird starts having leg issues among other issues. You could hire help and cull them all out but a couple days later you have just as many lame again. Perdue also has huge hatchery issues that they refuse to fix.
ReplyDeleteAlso, derm is not just caused by mismanagement, if the breeder flock has it, it will be passed down through. Mountaire has issues with derm, I have seen many a Mountaire flock much much worse than on the video. Last winter Mountaire had so many issues some of the growers had to compost the dead in the sheds because there was so many.
The point of the video is that Perdue is allegedly doing false advertising.
10:13 and 12:58 - Perdue has had significant interests in China since 1998 through their International Division. Look up "Perdue Shanghai" .... And it has been *rumored* that Perdue is looking hard at NC for relocation.
ReplyDeletePerdue has zero interests in china. They partnered on one processing plant with conglomerate Dah Hong Chong in 1998 and it would appear that was the end of it. In a recent press release dated 9/3/2014 perdue had this to say
ReplyDelete"While the United States government has added China to the growing list of countries approved to export chicken for sale in the United States, we will continue to use only chicken raised on American farms and processed in America for products sold in US."
Doesn't sound like the statement of a company with "substantial" interests in china. No, perdue has become a bit player in the rapidly expanding global poultry industry. While they are the #3 poultry producer in the country, they output less than half of the #2 company. That's a pretty big jump. Perdue simply doesn't have the market clout to compete globally and have gotten too big to go back to a regional producer.
Couple all this with a possible public relations nightmare and I'm not exactly bullish on their future. And that scares the crap out of me!!!!!!!!!