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from the I-hope-you're-not-eating-right-now dept.
AlterNet reports
On June 27, 2016, Jack and Peter DeCoster, former owners of a Quality Egg Co. (not kidding), were ordered to begin serving time in jail.
The pair previously had been sentenced to three months each in jail for their role in a salmonella poisoning outbreak in 2010. The culprits admitted to knowingly shipping eggs with false processing and expiration dates to fool state regulators and retail customers about their age, and to bribing a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector at least twice to approve sales of poor-quality eggs.
In sentencing the egg operators, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett said, "Given the defendants' careless oversight and repeated violations of safety standards, there is an increased likelihood that these offenses, or offenses like these, could happen again. The punishment will also serve to effectively deter against the marketing of unsafe foods and widespread harm to public health by similarly situated corporate officials and other executives in the industry." A "litany of shameful conduct" occurred under the DeCosters' watch, Judge Bennett told NBC News.
The Supreme Court refused1 to hear an appeal.
[...] for consumers and honest egg producers, the sentences are both long overdue, and far too weak given Quality Egg's history, which includes at least 10 deaths and 500 people made ill from salmonella-infected eggs produced by the DeCoster-owned egg operations.
[...] As early as 1982, at least one person had died from DeCoster eggs and in 1987, nine people died and 500 were sickened said authorities.
As is the case with most factory farmers, the DeCosters' food safety issues were inextricably linked to abuse of workers, animals, and the environment.
[...] In 1996, federal investigators found DeCoster workers living in rat- and cockroach-infested housing. The egg operation was fined $3.6 million. It was also cited for improper asbestos removal. "The conditions in this migrant farm site are as dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop we have seen", said Labor Secretary Robert Reich at the time; "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 2009, state agriculture officials raided the same operation visited by Reich and Britos. They encountered ammonia fumes so noxious, four department workers had to be treated by doctors for burned lungs.
[...] After the raid, [Quality Egg's retailer customers] denied that they were associated with the company and few stores would admit receiving any of the 21 million eggs the company was known to ship each week. Retail supermarket chains Shaw's and Hannaford both denied doing business with Quality, even though the Sun Journal found eggs from the raided farm, stamped "1183" or "1203", at their stores. And Eggland's Best, which maintained three dedicated barns on the Quality Egg grounds according to an undercover Mercy For Animals (MFA) employee, denied doing business with Quality Egg--even though an Eggland's Best truck can be seen in the video of the raid!
[...] Despite a decades-long rap sheet, DeCoster expanded his egg empire into Iowa, Ohio, and Maryland with the help of Boston public relations guru George Regan. The DeCosters even added hogs to the mix.
1 Link in article appears to contain tracking data — removed by submitter. [Thanks! -Ed.]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 08 2017, @11:23PM (13 children)
Summary of TFS:
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @12:04AM (12 children)
Actually, Socialists will work for all that they get (at their worker-owned workplaces).
You're thinking of Liberal Democracy and welfare handouts (closely tied to Capitalism, concentrated wealth, and inequality).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @12:40AM (7 children)
Socialist Co-Op calls for Volunteers to bag bulk items for sale. Duties include weighing, bagging, and labeling bulk items including seeds, nuts, and assorted candies. Volunteer positions are not paid, so you will be expected to steal as much as you can get away with, at which point you will be fired. The Socialist Co-Op prides itself on high turnover rate providing unpaid exploitation experience to teens, seniors, and the mentally ill. Shop today at the Socialist Co-Op, offering the lowest prices through slave labor.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:20AM (4 children)
You didn't name the "Socialist" operation to which you are referring.
You didn't link to a story which describes the activities to which have alluded either.
You live in a world infected with bad information and ignorant opinions.
Take a trip abroad some time and get away from USA's HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE Lamestream Media.
Go to northern Italy and see some of the thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of (Socialist) cooperatives there.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:43AM (3 children)
Before (and after) there was an Israel, many Jewish folk living in the region lives in what amounted to Socialist Communes. A number of their current corporations are directly descended from them, and a few supposedly still live on as they have for decades if not longer. Old school piracy (and perhaps even some modern piracy) qualifies as well. Plus many other places with either formal or informal communal ownership of their own means of production (whether built on social, religious, or simple necessity) grounds. Some is agriculture, some is industrial, some is multifaceted. The biggest issue, much like with family owned corporations is ensuring multiple generations of competent stewardship and the necessary visionaries to retain the resources necessary to continue functioning without selling off assets that will slowly lose them control of what had been attained for the group. Some less successful Amish and Mennonite communities are a good examples of the latter.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:49AM (1 child)
You're an idiot.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday July 09 2017, @03:43AM
The best socialism is national socialism.
(Score: 1) by darkpixel on Sunday July 09 2017, @02:26AM
See! Look here! It's my pet example of a socialist commune that is working! Please ignore the fact that everyone came her voluntarily and trust me that it will work when a gun is held to your head.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:23AM (1 child)
Isn't it funny how reality gets modded Troll when it casts The Socialist Narrative in a bad light?
I've endured the Socialist Co-Op Volunteer Experience firsthand. I wasn't on some message board lying about how wonderful "worker-owned workplaces" are. I was there, stuffing chocolate covered malt balls into plastic bags for nothing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:54AM
You clearly weren't an owner.
You clearly aren't talking about Socialism.
You were an employee in a Capitalist operation.
You are a liar and a fool.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Sunday July 09 2017, @03:30AM (1 child)
I think you are thinking of Capitalism (with their worker owned businesses). In socialism only the government is allowed to own a business, and they take all the excess profits.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @04:37AM
you are thinking of
You have a very weak understanding of what is being discussed.
Capitalism (with their worker owned businesses)
Such a thing is possible, but it is not so common in USA (Publix; Dunn-Edwards Paints).
If that was what I was referring to, I would have used the term ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan).
As the snack factory worker clearly wasn't an owner in anything, neither ESOP nor Cooperative applies.
He was obviously an employee at a regular old Capitalist company where The Ownership Class and The Working Class are distinct and separate entities.
When he started talking about handouts, he was clearly referring to government.
...and government in a place with classes that are very unequal.
Socialism is all about empowerment of The Working Class and making it so that there is only a working class (no class of idle rich).
This is done in several ways; mainly by out-competing the Capitalist operations (which includes parasites who siphon off profits while producing nothing).
In socialism only the government is allowed to own a business
That's not Socialism.
Socialism is an economic system; it is the opposite of Capitalism (another economic system).
Here's Socialism: The collective ownership of the means of production by THE WORKERS.
What you are talking about is State Capitalism (a combined economic and governmental system): A tiny number of people make all the decisions and, where that has been practiced so far, there is no genuine feedback loop between The Workers and The Deciders.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @09:53PM (1 child)
Let's see... to work there, you must be an initial investor? If you are fit to clean the toilets at a modern CPU fabrication plant, you'll need to come up with a $million in order to get your job? Somebody has to fund this thing.
Suppose you are now an old worker-owner and you want to retire. What happens to your portion of the ownership? If you sell it to a non-worker, you break the socialism, so you really can't be free to sell it. The market is limited to new hires. If the company isn't hiring, nobody will be buying, so you can't sell, which means that you are prohibited from retiring. After all, if you retired without selling, you'd become a dirty capitalist non-worker investor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @04:15AM
Most companies start small, nitwit.
Often, those have workers with personal tools.
Some get a loan, like any other business.
Mondragon started in 1956 with 6 worker-owners.
Today, that cooperative has over 100,000 worker-owners in 40 countries on 5 continents.
.
So, your hypothetical worker has reached retirement age and still needs gobs and gobs of income?
For what?
His need for expenditures should have gone way down a long time ago.
He should have a paid-off residence with paid-off furnishings as well as a paid-off car[1].
What else is he spending all this money on? Buying the latest fashions? Going to the hot hip nightspot?
If he has thought ahead, he has a garden and gets a lot of his food there.
He's even got a greenhouse that extends the growing season.
Perhaps his residence is a cooperative housing thing where they have a communal garden.
Maybe there are even communal meals with a rotating-host thing.
[1] Old farts who don't need to be at a job daily any more don't have a huge amount of transportation needs the way wage slaves do and we aren't in a big hurry to get places.
Public transportation (Seniors' Fare) generally works well for a lot of us.
Some of us use bicycles/tricycles.
For the rare times that we need something beyond that, there's neighbors/friends/cabs/Uber.
Maybe you'll grow up one day and realize that your existence isn't the same as everyone else.
...and, if you can never think in a way other than as an exploited employee in a Capitalist system, you'll never realize that there are alternatives.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]