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posted by martyb on Saturday July 08 2017, @11:02PM   Printer-friendly
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.]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @12:02AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @12:02AM (#536693)

    "As is the case with most factory farmers, the DeCosters' food safety issues were inextricably linked to abuse of workers, animals, and the environment."

    OK, no problem. Since most factory famers are abusing workers, animals, the environment, and apparently endangering the public, easy answer:

    Ban factory farmers. Or require them to prove they're not doing any of the above. Since they can't prove a negative, they'll fail, and it'll be a de facto ban. Then split their land into, oh, let's say 5 acre plots and hand it out to the peasants, homeless people in cities, and anyone else who wants some and doesn't already have land. They'll do a fine job because they won't be factory farming!

    Can't see a downside.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @12:37AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @12:37AM (#536704)

    What you suggested (I missed your /sarc tag. Right?) will have more people employed.
    More people employed is a good thing.

    Plantation Capitalism seeks to maximize profits (for a few) by increasing efficiency.
    That's one possible goal.

    Another possible goal would be social stability where everyone has a job.
    Your (snide) suggestion adds distributed ownership.
    If the factory farmer is reimbursed for his property (taken under Eminent Domain), I'm not seeing the downside.

    Oh, and ban the factory farmer who has already demonstrated that he can't do the task responsibly from ever again participating in that industry.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:34AM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:34AM (#536719) Journal

      If the factory farmer is reimbursed for his property (taken under Eminent Domain), I'm not seeing the downside.

      Aside from completely running against your lip service about "democracy" in the workplace, it's picking losers over winners. The world is more than fair enough for worker co-ops to show their superiority over "factory farms" (we'll ignore, of course, that many such worker co-ops would also be factory farms just due to the effectiveness of the approach) and yet you feel the need to push down on the scale and seize the property of productive members of society and give the assets to the unproductive members of society - classic socialism failure mode there.

      And what happens when someone figures out how to game this use of eminent domain for profit? That is, create or improve a factory farm, have it seized by the state for a profit, and then start over again and again. Typical corrupt, villainous stuff from an Ayn Rand novel.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @04:17AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @04:17AM (#536743)

        You're kind of skipping the point here, khallow.

        This was just an exercise in getting gewg to show the world what a clot he is. Somehow this story really captured a whole bunch of his crazy in one packet and duplicates it on a socialist production line for the world to enjoy.

        As you observe, gewg's a grade A, industrial strength, economy size hypocrite (or a walking, talking lump of cognitive dissonance). Apparently giving subeconomic farms carved out from vast holdings that were viable precisely because of their size, to people who know precisely zilch about farming, is the path to success.... but you know what? It doesn't really matter at this point. Gewg's internal voices will decry us all as *looks up in the comments* ... aaahh yes: "You are a liar and a fool."

        With any luck anyone else who might be wavering could figure out for themselves that if His Mighty Gewgness were right about all that shit, he'd have established the Cosmic Co-Op to Rule Them All, and overtaken Jeff Bezos in collective productivity and affluence already.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @04:49AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 09 2017, @04:49AM (#536748)

          ...as long as the owners of those factory farms were allowed to break the law, abusing workers, endangering public health, and killing people.

          ...and you still haven't demonstrated that you aren't a liar and a fool.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:08PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 09 2017, @01:08PM (#536813) Journal

            ...as long as the owners of those factory farms were allowed to break the law, abusing workers, endangering public health, and killing people.

            Well, that's what regulations are for. We should rather look into why those aren't getting enforced rather than pursue some agenda unrelated to the problem. After all, I'll be just as dead, if I die from worker coops eggs rather than corporate eggs.