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Vol. 74/No. 35      September 20, 2010

 
Iowa egg firm known
for unsanitary conditions
 
BY CHUCK GUERRA
AND REBECCA WILLIAMSON  
CLARION, Iowa—At least 1,470 people have been sickened across the United States by a salmonella outbreak linked to eggs produced by two companies in Iowa, resulting in the recall of 550 million eggs. The contaminated eggs came from Wright County Egg Company, owned by livestock magnate Austin DeCoster, and Hillandale Farms, which gets feed and hens from Wright County Egg.

At the center of the scandal is DeCoster, who owns both hog and egg-producing facilities in Iowa as well as egg farms in Maine and Ohio. DeCoster’s operations have had run-ins with several state government agencies over failure to comply with environmental and food safety regulations. Wright County Egg also has a reputation among working people in the area for bad conditions and low wages.

Salmonella poisoning can be deadly, although no deaths have yet been reported in connection with the outbreak. Salmonella in eggs can be prevented through a combination of proper sanitation and rodent-control measures at hen houses and feed mills.

Wright County Egg is a large operation, with nine plants spread around Wright County, Iowa. The plants produce 1.4 billion eggs a year.

The Iowa state government classified DeCoster as a “habitual violator” of environmental laws in 2000, but that didn’t stop him from expanding his operations. He simply set up new facilities acting through intermediaries and then assumed control after the required permits were approved.

Conditions in the hen houses and feed mills on his farms, as with many others around the country, were not subject to food safety inspection under existing Federal Department of Agriculture regulations.

Most workers in the local egg industry are immigrants from Mexico. A woman employed at one of DeCoster’s packing plants for 10 years, who declined to be identified by name, said she works “from 6:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night.” She packs about two cartloads per hour, making $4.25 for each cartload. There are no bathrooms with running water, she said, only a “filthy” portable latrine far away.

Antonio Pérez told the Militant he has friends who work at Wright County Egg plants. “They say the company doesn’t provide gloves, face masks, or anything to cover your clothes,” he said, not even for those who have direct contact with the animals. Pérez works at a plant that processes liquefied eggs.
 
 
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Chile mine owners never fixed unsafe conditions  
 
 
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