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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 Monday July 10 2017, @04:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @04:15AM (#537023)

    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]