Thank you for making and sharing this video. I'm sure it isn't popular because most people don't want to face the ugly truth and the corporations would like it buried under a big rock. I started raising my own meat and laying chickens some years back after seeing how little quality of life the birds in battery farms enjoyed. My chickens get to be chickens and they're a joy to raise.
My dad inherited 5 houses from his dad and built 2 of his own. The stress of always having to update the houses and the politics of the performance based system really took a toll on him. He was finally able to get out in late 2009 and start a new life. Unfortunately after selling the farm, leaving his hometown and building a new home for us, he died later that same year. Only 49 and was so unexpected. I know the years he spent as a chicken grower- the dirtiness of the job and crookedness of the companies themselves as well as the politics and favoritism killed him young. He never hesitated to discourage me from even considering to keep the family business going. And for that, I am eternally grateful to him. He didn’t get to enjoy much of his new life but I’m glad he was able to get out. Even if only for a little while If you love your children, don’t let them become chicken growers RIP DAD/SDC
My wife was a grower for pilgrims pride. That company broke us. We were fortunate enough to sell the farm before it bankrupted us. That was 16 yrs ago and the farmers are making less money today than we did then. I would never let my children go into the business. Great investigative documentary.
@Troy Daigle, partner with Farmer Focus. Their a great company allowing the FARMER to own the chickens and feed until they need to have them, they pay you for them when their grown.
Contract growing pretty much comes down to performance. If you don't consistently perform average or above in your settlement you probably aren't going to make it. I have been involved in contract growing hogs and poultry over 20 years and sometimes you get bad chicks and maybe feed but like a good hitter in baseball he doesn't always get a good pitch but he is consistent and good and most of the time comes out successful!
Sobering story for me and our feed additive company based in New Zealand & Japan, we really need to reconsider which company we will conduct business with and insure they do not have a "tournament' payment system for their farmers. Our 100% natural feed additive is achieving 10%~25% weight gain which is significant but considerd impossible, within the industry weight gain, of 0.1% ~ 2.0% for broiler chicken is considered significant so you can see why a claim of 10%~25% weight gain sounds impossible. I wish I knew earlier about this story in the US, I would love to donate as much of our product to farmers who are in need, due to this story I will start looking into how we as a company can support farmers in need and shine a light onto darkness and GREED! "Thank you" to the producers, farmers and everyone involved in this story! Mahalo , God Bless and Akua blessings.
I became aware of this through Supersize Me 2. I had no idea. These companies are unethical and downright deceitful. The poor farmers are like serfs to these greedy monsters.
What happens to these farmers is wrong! Shame on the cooperations for what they do to farmers. We need to care more as a society for the humane way to raise our food and support all farmers! What can we as consumers do to help? I want to know what ways we can fight this injustice!
I always said if I ever got back into the chicken business the very first thing I would do is install a truck scale in the farm road. As a farmer you have no way of knowing how much feed they actually brought you OR how many pounds of chicken they actually picked up. That was the main part I didn’t like
The Collector on the Corner 6 hours ago We Live 11 miles west of Pocahontas Ark. At the hwy 90 and 93 jct. Within 20 miles of our location there are thousands of those huge chicken grower houses. and there is a feed mill at Pocahontas and a PECO processing plant and hatchery south of Pocahontas. And normally at least a half dozen Peco trucks per hour go by our corner. And they ran 24x7. And we havent seen a Peco feed truck or Cackle crate go by in 6 days? Something is up? those growers went millions of dollars in debt to build those houses. The county is on the hook for a 25 million bond to build the processing plant. The Local electric coop spent millions running transmission lines and upgrading the system to service the grower houses. Not a peep from anyone? Everyone is tight lipped? nothing on the news?
It’s just as much their fault as it is the company.Not one of them said they had an attorney read it. On our farm the lawyer would go through the contract before anyone would sign it.
Well here in india government has put something called msp(minimum support price). Its made illegal to buy frm farmer Below MSP. And msp is calculated every year as average cost of production+20 % profit.
Social media can connect 1000's of people to discuss issues like this, but if set up properly, only if they are invited to be part of the group. When asked by someone like Senator John Boozeman of Arkansas, exactly what is it you would like to see changed, I suggest having the proposal ready to present. I just wished we got paid more won't fly. Maybe Pay, bonuses, updates, condition of baby chicks, being paid by the square foot, fuel allowances, feed delivery issues, integrators flipping buyers for your farm, to other farms, etc ....
The processing part of chicken farming, is it the slaughtering and the packaging lastly the distribution part of it. Do these cost also include the refrigeration costs? I would really want to understand the truth about the processing part, that makes the farmer to lose out in this business.
Wow that’s really black market right there. Hope these bosses and their family can never eat chk again. I’ll never buy Tyson brand again and what other companies let me know too, I’ll start supporting local farmers
Would be nice to hear the numbers and reasons why the numbers are so low. All I hear is how sad it is. If it is an abysmal failure why are some successful at it?
The processing part of chicken farming, is it the slaughtering and the packaging lastly the distribution part of it. Do these cost also include the refrigeration costs? I would really want to understand the truth about the processing part, that makes the farmer to lose out in this business.
